Education Minister Dame Jennifer Smith led a tour yesterday at the official opening of the Ministry’s new headquarters at Southside.Flanked by fellow MPs, honorees, their family members, staff and students, the Minister commended former Minister of Public Works Derrick Burgess for making the transition a reality.“Mr Burgess was not only convinced that this building (which was a storage facility) could be a lovely office space, and he worked hard to make it happen.“Today, we demonstrate that we have fully realised that goal with the blessing of this building and those who work in it,” said Ms Smith.“Today, we also dedicate our various meeting and training rooms in recognition of some prominent educators who have left their mark on the history of education in this country.”“They say ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ and for us — the Budget cuts imposed in the 2011 Budget drove us to look for economies — in our case, economies of scale like one building versus three,” she said.The Ministry was consolidated into one building just over a year ago.Ms Smith also commended Alfred Esdaile, his crew at the Bermuda Land Development Corporation and Cleun Gaiton “for all their hard work in transforming the building in time for this event”.