THE Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Region 10 will be including the rebuilding of the Christianburg Primary School in its 2019 capital work programme.
Regional Executive Officer (REO) Orrin Gordon explained that the bulk of the $197M that was allocated for education for 2019 was to be used on the construction of Amelia’s Ward Nursery and Primary Schools.
Technical issues are already showing that construction of the primary school may not be possible by the end of the 2019 budget cycle. “Again, we are seeing that we are going to run into trouble, because to date the consultancy is not sorted out; we don’t have a consultant yet for the primary school and with the dates and all of that, we are looking at not until June, July before we can get an award for a contractor to be given that work,” he explained.
As a result of this, another priority project has to be used as an inclusion, so that the money will be spent and not sent back to the Ministry of Finance. A decision was made that the next priority project will be construction of the Christianburg Primary School. This has been a request by parents in the community, since their children were forced to travel a longer distance to the St Aidan’s Primary School, where they were temporarily housed.
Currently, the RDC in collaboration with the Department of Education, Region 10, is looking for a practical site where the school can be built. If the current site, where the school stands should be used, a lot of back-filling, and preparatory works will have to be done, since the area is very swampy and the school was suspected to be sinking. Earlier in the year, upon visiting the school ,Minister of Finance Winston Jordan said that the school needs to be evaluated. He promised to have a structural engineer examine the school, as to whether it can be repaired, or completely rebuilt.
Gordon said that another option is the compound where the old Magistrate’s Court was located, which was burnt down. The Regional Education Officer, Robindra Singh, will be engaging parents and residents on a scoping exercise to see where the best location is, for the school to be constructed. It will be a one-storey building, since it will be catering for approximately only 100 students.
While it is unfortunate that the construction of the new Amelia’s Ward Primary School may be delayed for the second budget cycle, Regional Chairman Renis Morian said that construction of the Christianburg Primary School is an answer to the cries of parents.
Parents have been complaining that their children are being discriminated against at the St Aidan’s Primary, in addition to the extra transportation cost to attend school there.
Photo attached of the Christianburg Primary School as it stands today
