The Berbice High School is inviting its alumni to send their contact details to its centenary secretariat as plans are in train to create a database of old students as part of its 100th anniversary celebrations on September 5, 2016.
Today, thousands of students would have benefited from first class instruction and mentorship provided by the school. “This distinguished 100-year journey, began quite humbly with an enrollment of 9 boys under the stewardship of C A Pugsley, on September 5, 1916 at the Berbice High School for Boys,” a press release said. “Encouraged by the growth in the school’s population, and increasing government and community support, the Canadian Mission Council of the Presbyterian Church of Canada introduced a separate School for Girls in 1920.” The Berbice High School as we know it today became a co-educational institution when the two schools merged in 1941. As the student population growth outstripped available placement, government’s contribution to the school’s infrastructural development became ever more important. After 50 years of denominational control, in 1966, the Canadian Presbyterian Church officially handed over control to the government.
Currently, the school accommodates 700 students with a yearly intake of about 110. Of that intake, approximately 95% complete a full five-year programme leading up to the CXC examinations with 23 subject areas covered at the CSEC level and eight subjects at the CAPE level. In preparation for the centenary anniversary, the old students are invited to send their contact details to BHS centenary secretariat: bhscentenary@gmail.com; Grantley Walrond: grantleywalrond@yahoo.com, telephone: 600-1173; Chandra Sohan: chandrasohan@ymail.com, telephone: 624-6002 or Jennifer Rollins:jrollinsgy@yahoo.com, telephone: 694-0619.
