Minister for Education and Employment Owen Bonnici, together with the College Principal, George Psaila and Head of School, Christopher Higgans, visited the ongoing works being carried out on the multipurpose hall in St Thomas More St Lucia Secondary School.
St Lucia Secondary School opened its doors in 1997. When first constructed, it lacked a number of important facilities, namely a gym and a hall. The school started out as a girls’ Junior Lyceum and today serves as a co-ed secondary school for Yrs 9, 10 and 11. It welcomes around 500 students hailing primarily from Marsaxlokk, Fgura, Tarxien and St Lucia.
Minister Bonnici described how the school was built in the 1990s without a hall and sports complex. Through this project, a hall for social activities will be built, as well as an indoor sports complex. He said that, “The school is dependent on the weather, which played a part when the school held an assembly or was about to have a PE lesson. As a direct consequence, on days where the weather did not permit such events to be held outdoors, sadly, both had to be cancelled a few times over the years. The government, through the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools, is building a school hall which will have a seating capacity of over 450 people, as well as another hall which will be used for sports activities. The latter will be used for basketball, futsal, badminton and volleyball.”
Dr Bonnici continued, “As a Ministry, we saw the difficulty the school was facing and, together with the Principal as well as the Head of the School, we saw how we would be able to alleviate this shortcoming. We did not want this multipurpose hall to be enjoyed only by the students of this school, but we wanted these facilities to be used by the local community as well after school hours. In this way, we will continue to connect the education sector, not only with students, but also with the local community.”
FTS CEO Neville Young said the foundation has a variety of projects, ranging from building new schools, such as the building of a new Primary School in Qawra, in Msida and Victoria, Gozo, as well as extensive beautification projects in existing schools, such as the beautification project at Żejtun Secondary School and the Art School in Valletta, as well as building extensions to schools, such as the St Lucia High multipurpose hall project.”
Dr Young continued that the foundation is making a leap forward by starting to consult with students and educators themselves, as well as with education authorities, so that its projects are primarily student and educator oriented from the start
The college principal George Psaila said, “PE lessons were sometimes held in a class which is neither big enough nor adequately equipped, with a tiled floor which is ill-adapted for such lessons as students can easily slip and injure themselves. The Santa Lucia School has depended on the good will of other schools in order to use their hall to be able to celebrate Prize Day. Now, with these facilities, thanks to the Ministry, it will finally be possible for the school to host its own activities as other schools in Malta do. Above all, they will now be able graduate from their own school as they deserve.”
This project, which is being carried out with an investment of around €4 million, is expected to be completed in the next scholastic year.
These facilities will be available for use by the local community after school hours.
