Construction of new hinterland students’ dorm to begin in 2017

Georgetown, GINA, May 18, 2016

Work on the design for the new dormitory to house tertiary level students from the hinterland has commenced. The sum of $10M was allocated for this project during this year’s National Budget.

Ministerial Advisor, Mervyn Williams during a recent interview with the Government Information Agency (GINA), explained that Vibert Welch, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, has been engaged in some level of works on the technical design and sketch of the project, and “now is to get the designs up, settled and approved.”

Williams noted that the intention is to have the new dormitory constructed in the same geographic space as the Hinterland Students’ Dormitory at Liliendaal. Once the design is completed and approved, construction of the new dormitory will commence in 2017.

He however, pointed out that, “there will always be the risk of teenage children being exposed to what is undesirable if adults are housed in the same environment, and there is not proper supervision, and so the preference is to have those tertiary level students separated.”

The Government’s vision is to develop and implement a plan for ‘universalising’ a programme of technical and vocational training across the country, through the creation of skills training centres in every region.

In the interim, this new dormitory facility will allow for over 100 hinterland students to further their studies at higher institutions of learning on the coastland, including the Government Technical Institute (GTI), Carnegie School of Home Economics, the Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA) and the University of Guyana (UG).

Meanwhile, the Bina Hill Institute in Region Nine has received a boost of additional equipment and funding from the 2016 National Budget and has doubled its intake of students who are being trained in various skilled areas.