Ground broken on $2.3m BTVI classroom building

Fri, Aug 26th 2016, 04:10 PM


Prime Minister Perry Christie, Deputy Prime Minister Philip Davis, Minister of Education Jerome Fitzgerald and BTVI president Dr Robert Robertson took part in a ground breaking ceremony for a smart classroom block at the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute. (Photo: Tim Clarke/Tribune Staff)

A groundbreaking ceremony was held at the Bahamas Technical & Vocational Institute (BTVI) yesterday to mark the construction of a $2.3m structure that will house the school’s first ever set of smart classrooms.

Prime Minister Perry Christie, Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis and Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald all attended the event, with Mr. Christie saying this high-profile attendance highlights how valuable the government believes technical education is to the country.

The structure will be a 6,600 sq. ft., two-story building that will feature eight smart classrooms that can foster interactive learning while providing access to multi-media audio and visual systems.

There will be thermosafe panels so that walls, floors and the roof will be insulated to reduce cooling costs.

The smart classroom block is expected to be completed by the spring of 2017.

“The future of our economy depends heavily on the work those of you who are a part of what BTVI does,” Mr. Christie said, noting that there is a constant need for people with certain technical skills to help sustain the country’s tourism sector.

Youth unemployment, in particular, he said, “represents an enormous challenge to the stability of the country”, along with brain drain.

“When our neighbours have an unrestrained approach to recruiting the best and brightest to the United States of America, we are training people who are recruited to work in North America,” he said.

“So we have to continue to adapt to the modern ways of the world, to the innovations that are coming in. When you look at the process that we need in this area here, you’re talking about a building that will be two-stories, not requiring the traditional methodology of construction but a method that allows it to be built in months rather than years; technology that exists and that Bahamians must be aware of in terms of the learning process.”

By Rashad Rolle, Tribune Staff Reporter

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