Back in January 1976 when Riverton Meadows Early Childhood Education Centre first opened its doors, it was a poorly built wooden structure, and in the words of founding principal Junior Rowe, “students were just sitting on the floor”.
“I saw the need and said, ‘No, it can’t be like this.’ So over the years, we approached different persons to assist us, and in 1986, Monsignor Richard Albert came on board, and through his later-established St Patrick’s Foundation in 1994, things turned for the better,” Rowe explained.
Fast-forward to today and the structure, located at 12 Ferguson Drive in Riverton Meadows, Kingston 11, is nearly fully concrete, and each child has a chair. While Rowe is thankful, he is not satisfied.
For the long-serving headmaster, that satisfaction will only come once the institution achieves full certification from the Early Childhood Commission (ECC).
“It would be my crowning achievement,” Rowe said on Friday during the institution’s annual Children’s Day celebration, breakfast feeding programme and cheque presentation.