Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday officially inaugurated the St Benedict’s Secondary School in Kirkop.

The three-storey college, which is built on an area covering 24 tumoli of land, opened its doors for students in September 2005. The college, which started being built in March 2003, includes 13,000 square metres of recreational space. It has a total of 150 rooms including 42 classrooms, 35 resource rooms, nine science laboratories, nine laboratories for the teaching of educational technologies and eight computer laboratories.

It also has several special classes for teaching drama, music, art, ceramics, environmental studies, cooking, guidance, a clinic, a chapel, a library and administration offices. The college also has a seven-a-side football ground covered with artificial turf and a 200-metre athletics track.

The college has three water systems: one providing inferior quality water which can be used for flushing toilets and washing the floors, another one for irrigation purposes and another that is fit for drinking.

Dr Gonzi, who in the presence of Education Minister Louis Galea officially inaugurated the new college, said the government was very proud of this new school which is the third project which is being inaugurated in recent months.

This college was one of a number of projects which formed part of the government’s ambitious plan to modernise and renovate a number of schools around the country, as well as build others which it believes are required. Around Lm75 million have been voted for this plan which is expected to be concluded by 2010.

Apart from this project, the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Schools is also managing a number of projects in several other schools.

The second phase of the project will involve the building of a multi-purpose hall, a canteen, changing rooms and new offices as well as a sports complex similar to that built in Cottonera. The second phase will cover an area of 8,500 square metres and will be completed by the beginning of 2008.

There will be an open day at the college on Sunday between 9.30am and 5pm.