AFTER years of protests over the deplorable state of the Mocha Arcadia Nursery School and the Golden Grove Secondary school, government is moving ahead in constructing new facilities to replace the decrepit ones that currently exist. Currently, the Education Ministry is inviting eligible bidders to submit proposals for the construction of the two schools. “This is a move in the right direction, I am impressed,” Melisa Abrams – former President of the Mocha Arcadia Nursery School’s Parent Teacher Association (PTA) told Guyana Chronicle on Monday.
Abrams was among the parents who shut down the nursery school in April due to its appalling state. At the time, parents had contended that the nursery school, which is located on New Settlers Street, Mocha Arcadia, East Bank Demerara, was ‘literally’ falling to pieces.

In 2013, the then People’s Progressive Party/Civic Administration had promised to budget for the construction of a new nursery school but it never materialised. Nevertheless, Abrams said she was pleased with the swift actions taken by the Education Ministry, explaining that shortly after the protest ended in April contractors visited the site to assess the situation.
“Right now they are told to use a building in the Primary School compound to house the nursery school children for six weeks until they get the new building,” she told this newspaper.
According to Abrams, the old Mocha Community Centre which is situated within the compound of the Primary School is currently being rehabilitated to facilitate the children until the new building is completed. “They doing up the old community centre real nice, they paint it up and put in new windows so the children could be comfortable,” said a proud Abrams.
According to the tender, the engineer’s estimate for the building is set at $34M which has been in existence for more than 30 years.
Meanwhile, on the East Coast of Demerara, Head Teacher of the Golden Grove Secondary School, Dolores Dublin-Benjamin would only say that the construction of a new school “is long overdue.” However, she pointed out that November 6, 2016 will mark 50 years since the school has been in existence.
Over the years, parents, teachers and students have complained bitterly about the deplorable condition of the school. In 2011, the then Minister of Education Shaik Baksh had bemoaned the poor state of the school and had contended that the Region Four Administration had failed miserably with respect to executing critical repairs to the school. At the time, the secondary education institution was faced with sanitary, electrical and other physical problems.
From then to now the situation has deteriorated. When Guyana Chronicle visited the school on Monday, a number of cows were grazing in the heavily vegetated compound. While from the outside though small appeared “workable,” the inside leaves much to be desired. The engineer’s estimate is set at $184M for the reconstruction of the secondary school.