SABA--Minister of Primary and Secondary Education and of Media Arie Slob left Saba on Tuesday morning, January 14, with a positive feeling.
On Monday, January 13, the Minister visited the Sacred Heart School (SHS), the Saba Comprehensive School (SCS), the Expertise Center Education Care EC2, the Queen Wilhelmina Library and the Laura Linzey Day Care Center.
“I am proud that the people in the educational field managed to raise the quality to this level. The system remains vulnerable due to the island’s small scale, but I saw very motivated people who are working really hard and who have education at heart,” he said before leaving to St. Eustatius on Tuesday morning.
The Minister mentioned the recruiting and securing of sufficient personnel, and the maintaining of quality as some of the challenges of the education sector on Saba. He said that his Ministry remained committed to supporting Saba.
Minister Slob referred to the agreement that the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) has with the Public Entity Saba regarding the school buildings. As part of that agreement, the responsibility for the upkeep and the construction of the schools was transferred to the Public Entity Saba. “The construction of a new day care and kindergarten building is being planned and the project should start soon. Saba is working on solving the issue of capacity at the day care and kindergarten,” the Minister said.
“It was good to have been here. It provided me the opportunity to speak with many teachers, students and others who work in education,” he said. This was Slob’s second visit to Saba. He visited Saba some years ago in his former role as party leader of the ChristianUnion in the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament. “It was good to be back and to talk with people in a different capacity.” Climbing the Mt. Scenery on Monday afternoon was a wonderful experience, he said.
