Government hands over 29-seater bus to Penville Village Council

School children board bus in Penville

The Government of Dominica has once again demonstrated its unswerving commitment to the education of Dominican youth with the handing over of a new 29 -seater bus to the Penville Village Council over the weekend.

The bus, valued at $159,900 will transport about sixty (60) children from Penville to the Portsmouth Secondary School (PSS) and back. The Government will pay the driver and a conductor to transport the children at no cost to the parents.

Speaking at a special handing over ceremony at the Penville Primary School, Prime Minister and Parliamentary Representative for the area, Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit recalled a commitment he made to the people of the Vieille Case constituency when he first entered Parliament in February , 2000.

“You will recall when I came into office as your Parliamentary Representative in 2000, I decided to place education at the centre of the development of Penville because if we are to address the issue of poverty in Penville, we need to ensure that our children have a skill,” the Prime Minister stated.

The Prime Minister used the opportunity to urge parents to “place education at the centre of your children’s development”.

Hon. Skerrit, who is a former Minister for Education also highlighted the tremendous strides made by the people of Penville as a result of policy decisions and actions of his government.

The advent of Universal Secondary Education(USE) in 2005 means that every child who gets to grade six(6) at the Penville Primary School now has a guaranteed place at the Portsmouth Secondary School, a situation that did not exist 10- 15 years ago. According to the Dominican leader, at no time in the history of the community that so many children from Penville now have access to the Dominica State College in Roseau, an institution that came into being in 2002 when Hon. Skerrit was Minister for Education.

In addition, as a result of the government’s aggressive pursuit of obtaining scholarships for Dominicans to study overseas, hundreds of Dominicans, including people from Penville are now studying at universities in the United States, Venezuela, China, Cuba, Mexico and in the Caribbean.

Last month, the Government of Dominica handed over a bus to the La Plaine village council to transport children from the La Plaine constituency to secondary schools in Roseau. School children from Grand Fond also have access to a bus to transport them to the Castle Bruce Secondary School, courtesy of the Government of Dominica.