Cuban workforce arrives for gift-school construction

The initial contingent of 52 Cuban workers, arriving on two flights from Havana at Norman Manley Airport, marked the commencement of construction for a gift school at Twickenham Park in St. Catherine. This educational institution, designed as an agricultural residential facility with accommodations for 500, is part of a Cuban contribution exceeding $2 million, covering labour, construction materials, equipment, and a factory plant capable of producing five similar schools annually.

Published Wednesday, February 11, 1976

First batch of Cuban school builders comes
 
The first batch of Cubans to build the gift school arrived from Havana by Cubans flight at Norman Manley Airport yesterday. Totalling 52, they came in on two flights.
 
This batch of Cubans will be building accommodations for the entire Cuban workforce, which will be 250.
 
Another batch of 50 is expected towards the end of the month and the main force in early March.
 
The school which will be an agricultural residential institution will be sited at Twickenham Park in St. Catherine.
 
It will have accommodation for 500.
 
The Cuban contribution is estimated at over $2 million and includes labour, construction materials and equipment, and a factory plant capable of producing five such schools per year.
The school is expected to be completed in nine months, and the Cubans will be leaving all the equipment they brought, as part of the gift, the factory plant from which more pre-fabricated schools of the same type are to be built.
 
The Jamaican Government’s contribution towards it is in the region of $300,000, which will go mainly towards training personnel.
 
Some 50 Jamaicans at the supervisory staff level are expected to understudy the Cubans in this method of school building.
 
Cement to build the school has already arrived from Cuba and Minister of Education, the Hon. Howard Cooke, said yesterday that general equipment, including such things as tractors, are expected in by ship later this week or early next week.
 
Commenting on the Cuban gift and presence in the wake of recent controversy, Mr. Cooke said that the United States and Canada had also given aid to Jamaica and pointed out that there were hundreds of Peace Corps workers in the island from other countries.

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