In 2015 all school buildings on St. Eustatius will offer a good learning environment for teachers and pupils. "New and well kept school buildings contribute to good education.
I am proud that together with the island government we will arrange for well maintained school buildings for all pupils and teachers on St. Eustatius. They truly deserve that", so the Minister of Education, Culture and Science (Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap – OCW) Marja van Bijsterveldt-Vliegenthart declared. The Education Housing Plan St. Eustatius 2012-2015, which Education Commissioner of the Public Entity St. Eustatius, Mr. Glenville Schmidt, and the Minister of Education, Culture and Science signed on October 10th provides for the improvement of all school buildings on St. Eustatius.
Commissioner Schmidt: "The problems are not over yet. But miracles still do happen. I hope that with the confirmation of our agreements, we are able to solve the problem of the education housing in St. Eustatius, since this is substandard.
Recently the new covered terrace ("overdekte") of the Gwendoline van Putten School was finalized. The start of the new building for the Governor de Graaff School took place on September 17th and last week the highest point was already reached. Between now and 2015 the execution of the remaining building- and renovation projects for the schools on St.Eustatius will take place.
The signing of this Education Housing Plan is a result of the agreements made on June 27th by the Commissioner and the Minister on education housing. This plan stipulates that the Executive Council of St. Eustatius will invest 4.0 million US dollar and the OCW Ministry 8.7 million dollar. The Public Entity St. Eustatius and OCW, together with the School Boards, will manage the building projects. The Kingdom Building Department (Rijksgebouwendienst) will guide the execution. The investments in the education housing on the Dutch Caribbean islands are a reflection of the joint responsibility of the Kingdom government and the Public Entities with regard to education on Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius. As of October 10th 2010, these islands are special municipalities of the Netherlands.