After years of overcrowding and decades of unmet infrastructure needs, a long-awaited multimillion-dollar primary school project is poised to break ground on the Caribbean island of Barbuda, with full financing secured via a development grant from the government of the Dominican Republic.
Barbuda’s Minister of Education Daryll Matthew made the official announcement of the upcoming construction during a public statement on Friday, outlining how the purpose-built facility will resolve a chronic space shortage that has hampered learning at the island’s only existing primary school, Holy Trinity School, for generations.
Today, Holy Trinity School educates close to 200 primary-aged students across Barbuda, but the institution has long operated beyond its intended capacity. The lack of sufficient dedicated classroom space has already forced school administrators to split younger cohorts of students, holding their classes at an off-site alternative location far from the main campus. The problem grew far more severe in 2017, when Category 5 Hurricane Irma made landfall across the Caribbean, destroying multiple aging wooden classroom buildings on the Holy Trinity School campus and leaving even fewer learning spaces for the island’s student population.
Matthew emphasized that the new campus will not just replace lost infrastructure, but will deliver a modern, fully upgraded learning environment built to 21st-century safety and educational standards. “This new facility is more than just a construction project – it is an investment in the future of every young learner on Barbuda,” Matthew noted in his announcement.
With a deep rooted place in Barbuda’s community, Holy Trinity School has served as the island’s core primary education provider for more than 100 years. Once construction is completed, the entire student body will be able to move to the new purpose-built campus, ending the disruptive split-site learning model that has impacted student experiences for years.