Shouter Baptist school opens

Minister of Education Dr Tim Gopeesingh and Archbishop Barbara Burke with pupils and parents of the St Barbara's Spiritual Shouter Baptist Primary School. Express photo

Trinidad & Tobago's first Shouter Baptist school opened Monday at the start of the new school term. Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh, who visited the St Barbara's Spiritual Shouter Baptist Primary School, called it "a historic day" for Shouter Spiritual Baptist faith.

"It's the first school...that has been constructed for that faith, not only in Trinidad but the wider Caribbean and the world at large," he stated.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced on March 30, 2011, Persad-Bissessar that the school would be built and construction began in December last year.

The school can accomodate up to 250 children but so far only 105 pupils are enrolled in classes ranging from first year to standard three. The cost of the building was just over $28.3 million. 

Archbishop Barbara Burke described the occasion as joyful after years of feeling like a "second class citizen". She told reporters, "I feel elated, I feel so joyful in my soul because it was 14 long years we have been pleading and asking for a school."

Officials expect all teachers and a principal would be on board by Wednesday.