The decision to establish a new high school in another rural area of St. Kitts is in keeping with the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party’s overall philosophy on education aimed at fostering a society that gives each person a fair chance to improve his or her status in life.

Speaking at the recent signing of the contract for the architectural design for the high school in Saddlers, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of International Trade, Labour, Social Security, CARICOM Affairs, and Telecommunications and Technology, the Hon. Sam Condor, noted that St. Kitts and Nevis, was the first island in the Eastern Caribbean to establish a secondary school in a rural area.

Deputy Prime Minister Condor said the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party also pioneered the development of free comprehensive education.

The decision in 1967, to amalgamate the then St. Kitts-Nevis Grammar School and the then Girls High School into the then Basseterre Senior High School by the Labour Government of the Right Excellent Sir Robert L. Bradshaw, was strenuously opposed by the opposition People’s Action Movement and the plantocracy, many of whom withdrew their children from the school and sent them to be educated overseas.

“Since then we have been dotting secondary schools around the country,” said Mr. Condor, who pointed out that the community of Saddlers and its environs would benefit from the new high school when it is completed.

The Saddlers High School will bring to eight, the number of high schools in the twin-island Federation. They are the Basseterre High School, the Washington Archibald High School, the Sandy Point High School, the Verchild’s High School and the Cayon High School in St. Kitts; and the Charlestown Secondary School and the Gingerland High School in Nevis.

Of the seven existing high schools, six have been established under Labour Party Administrations – Basseterre High School, Washington Archibald High School (formerly the Basseterre Junior High School); the Sandy Point High School and the Cayon High School in St. Kitts and the Charlestown Secondary School and the Gingerland High School in Nevis.

The Verchild’s High School built during the 15-year term in office of the People’s Action Movement, like the Saddlers High School, was part of the overall master plan initiated by the Labour Government under then Minister of Education, the late Hon. Fitzroy Bryant.

The Robert Bradshaw Labour Administration also established the Teacher’s Training College in 1967 and a Technical College in 1970 leading up to the construction of the college of further education, now the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College.

Since its election to a second term in 2000, the Denzil Douglas Labour Government has spent millions of dollars expanding the Basseterre High School, the Sandy Point High School, the Cayon High School and the Washington Archibald High School. Facilities included classroom, computer labs, science labs, libraries, administrative blocks and bathroom facilities.