Spending on education – a priority for Reg. 3
─ 45 nursery, 58 primary and 14 secondary schools to get maintenance
─ $156M for maintenance of education buildings
─ $20M for maintenance of school bridges
─ $84M for other infrastructure
DPI, Guyana, Tuesday, May 7, 2019
A total of $260M is expected to be spent for the maintenance of the 45 nursery, 58 primary and 14 secondary schools in Region 3.
Under maintenance of these buildings, the nursery division will see $40M spent while the Primary and Secondary divisions will see $67M and $34M spent respectively. For the maintenance of administrative buildings, the region will spend $15M amounting to a total of $156M for the maintenance of educational buildings.
For the maintenance of bridges, a total of $20M is expected to be spent and according to the Regional Executive Officer (REO), Jennifer Ferreira-Dougall spending on education is a priority. “An educated nation is a rich nation and in order to ensure the proper delivery of education, the infrastructure must be to a standard that is acceptable to the persons dwelling in it. We will continue to spend on these education facilities which directly benefit the many children of our region and indirectly the parents of the children.”
The REO also indicated to the Department of Public Information (DPI), in an exclusive interview, that a number of the maintenance works are already completed at various schools in the region. These include corrective maintenance work to Meten-Meer-Zorg East Nursery, Zeelugt Nursery, La Parfait Harmonie Nursery, Meten-Meer-Zorg Primary, St. Lawrence Primary, Sand Hills Primary, Maryville Primary, Fort Island Primary, Windsor Forest Primary and La Retraite Primary schools.
Under maintenance of other infrastructure within the Education Delivery programme repairs to the boundary fence, landfilling and landscaping were done at Canal No. 2 Nursery, Jasso’s Nursery, Blake Nursery, Vreed-en-Hoop Nursery, Den Amstel Nursery and Fort Island Nursery. Vergenoegen Secondary, L’Aventure Secondary, Parika Salem Secondary, Patentia Secondary, Leonora Secondary, Vreed-en-Hoop Secondary and Fellowship Practical Instruction Centre will see repairs to the boundary fence, repairs to sanitary blocks, landfilling, landscaping and construction of security huts. A total of $84M is expected to be spent in the field of maintenance of other infrastructure of which 73 per cent of spending is completed.
For the maintenance of bridges, 99 per cent of spending is completed with the repairs to a bridge at Richmond Hill Primary School at Leguan remaining to be completed. The bridges at Jasso’s Nursery, Philadelphia Nursery, New Annlegt Nursery, Sand Hills Primary, Richmond Hill Primary, Tuschen Primary and Stewartville Secondary schools have been completed.
The region is also witnessing the construction of a new state-of-the-art secondary school at Westminster, La Parfaite Harmonie. This project is monitored by the Ministry of Education and will also contribute to the improvement of the education delivery programme in Region 3. At last year’s sitting of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination, the region recorded significant improvements in their results, and more students had matriculated when compared to previous years. The region is expecting more significant enhancements from the 2019 results.
Story and Images: Ganesh Mahipaul.