WORKS are moving apace on the new Leonora Secondary School and Leonora Technical Institute, at West Coast Demerara and Education Minister Shaik Baksh is optimistic of completion before year-end.

He said last Thursday that if all goes well, students are expected to move into the new secondary school for the 2011/2012 academic year.

Currently, they are housed in the old school building near the Leonora Market.
In the 2011 National Budget, a total of $2.8 billion was allocated for the continued maintenance, rehabilitation, extension and construction of educational facilities countrywide.

Additionally, $1.6 billion has been budgeted, this year, for technical vocational education, which includes completing construction of the Leonora Technical Institute as well as the  Mahaicony Technical Institute, on East Coast Demerara.

The erection of new technical and vocational centres follows a revision of the Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) curriculum, to make it more relevant to the world of work.

Subsequently, monies were made available, with US$9.6M from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), to build the new centres.