President of the Collectivité Daniel Gibbs and Vice-Recteur Michel Sanz (right) sign the breakfast agreement.
MARIGOT--The signing of a breakfast agreement for schools in St. Martin, a national scheme initiated under the Poverty Plan, took place recently between Vice-Recteur Michel Sanz representing National Education, President of the Collectivité Daniel Gibbs, Third Vice-President Sofia Carti in charge of education, Caisse Territorial des Oeuvres Scolaires (CTOS) President Pascale Laborde, and L’Instance Régionale d’Education et de Promotion de la Santé (IREPS) Guadeloupe Deputy Director Raoul Legba.
Principals of the primary schools to benefit from the initiative, members of the Human Development Department and Collectivité staff were also present.
Schools benefitting from the scheme are Aline Hanson Elementary School in Sandy Ground, Clair St. Maximin Elementary School in French Quarter, and Omer Arrondell Elementary School in French Quarter.
Nursery schools are also included: Jean Anselme in French Quarter, Elian Clarke in French Quarter, and Jérôme Beaupère in Sandy Ground.
The scheme is a joint initiative of the French Ministry of Education, CTOS, IREPS and the Collectivité of St. Martin with funding from the French Ministry of Education and the Collectivité, and implementation of human and technical resources from the Collectivité and Caisse des Écoles.
“This is the local application of the national Poverty Plan scheme and notable for having IREPS at our side locally, which is responsible for training and supporting the teaching teams,” said Gibbs. “It is therefore a team effort at the service of the children in the priority education network.
“In some families, breakfast will be the only balanced meal of the day. Children will have access to this breakfast every morning over the four school days, between 7:30 for elementary classes and 8:00 for the kindergartens.
“IREPS has programmed training courses for teachers and canteen staff assigned to these schools to enable them to accompany the children and provide them with fun information on good nutrition. The aim is also to ensure that this advice is followed by parents at home.”
The breakfast scheme will start at the beginning of carnival holidays.
