‘When contractors fail, children suffer’ – Manickchand says as sod turned for $566M North Ruimveldt Secondary

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand overlooking Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Alfred King (left) signing the $566.( million contract for the new school (Ministry of Education Photo/August 24, 2022)

Manickchand reminded that contractors are chosen from an impartial and transparent process of public tendering based on their bid submitted for the project and therefore contractors cannot claim victimisation when penalties are applied.

“So you can’t tell me if we’re applying penalties, at that point, that we don’t like you. We like you enough to sign the contract with you today and to turn the sod and give you the work,” she said.

Importantly, the Minister highlighted that the projects are not only the responsibility of the contractors and engineers responsibility as these technical staff do not understand the relationship between education delivery and the construction process.

As such, each new building will have an education officer attached to the construction site who will report to the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary and Chief Education Officer who will then report to the minister on the progress of structure in relation to the delivery of education.

The ministry will also be posting what the school is supposed to look like and the specifications to which it must be constructed so that parents and other persons can scrutinize and verify it for themselves.

“We’re not in doubt about what happens when physical space is not ready or is destroyed for children and that is why we must protect in every way, schools, the learning that happens there and the reputation of schools,” Manickchand said.

Manickchand explained that usually more than 150 students would be placed at the North Ruimveldt Secondary, due to the destruction caused by the fire only 50 students would be placed at the school in 2022.

Stressing that schools must be protected at all costs, Manickchand reminded of the North West Secondary School in Region One which was destroyed by arson, and highlighted that students from that institution are now being educated under tents.

The North Ruimveldt Secondary School was destroyed by a fire in June, 2021. Manickchand had pledged at the time of the fire that the government will rebuild the institution which housed 512 students along with 39 teachers.

The new three-story school will be outfitted with all modern amenities, including science labs, Information Technology (IT) labs, modern classrooms, and a staff room, among other things.

The contract for the school was awarded to Kares Engineering Inc.