Education Minister says school rehabilitation off to a late start

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]ith the reopening of school nearly a month away, this week Saint Lucia’s Education Minister Dr. Gale Rigobert updated the press on the government’s progress regarding school rehabilitation projects. She detailed the extensive work still awaiting completion, the government’s priority concerns and the changes placed on the back burner. The minister also admitted that the much-needed work has taken more time to progress than anticipated.

“We have tried very hard to ensure that our rehabilitation programme is implemented in such a way that we will not suffer any delay in the reopening of school,” she said. “Unfortunately I must say we are off to a late start and what it means is that we will have to deal with the priority areas first, and those things that can be done later, we will do later.”

The minister announced that health and safety concerns reside at the top of her ministry’s lists of priorities: “Issues regarding health and safety are paramount. For example, where we have electrical problems caused by leaking roofs and interaction with water and electricity, which you know can pose a hazard, that’s top of the list.

We have some schools, Babonneau for example, their louvres are badly, badly damaged and so when it rains water comes in.”

Among other issues the education department wishes to address at schools across the island are: mould, leaking roofs and termite infestations. “Many of our partitions which are termite-infested now pose a physical danger to our students and so we will be undertaking a replacement of as many of our partitions as we can.”

Additionally: “Food and nutrition and the need to rehabilitate labs will be looked at—such as home economics rooms and kitchens, especially since we use those kitchens to prepare the food as part of our school feeding programme.”

Cosmetic changes like repainting jobs, she said will be addressed later and with a phased approach. Repairs not completed in the summer will be rescheduled for the Christmas break.

It was also indicated on Monday that the government is in receipt of a donation of 100 new pieces of school furniture which the minister said her government hopes to replicate: “It is a gift that we appreciate and we expect that we will be able to scrape up some monies to allocate to purchasing new furniture.”

Earlier in the year the government also received financing from the World Bank towards the cost of a Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Project. Some of these funds were slated to cover payments under the Contract for Procurement of Furniture and Office Equipment for schools. The minister said she is insistent on having local joiners, tradesmen and carpenters provide these new pieces so that monies will circulate inland and for the benefit of Saint Lucians.

School is currently scheduled to begin on September 3, 2018.