— to be first school to be completed under the Guyana Secondary Education Improvement Project

EDUCATION Minister, Priya Manickchand, was impressed with what she saw when she visited the US$4.7 million Westminster Secondary School on Thursday, which is expected to be handed over to the Ministry of Education (MoE) before the end of this month.
The school will be the first to be completed under the Guyana Secondary Education Improvement Project (GSEIP). This programme was first conceptualised in 2014, receiving US$10 million in financing from the World Bank. “This will be a game charger for us,” Minister Manickchand approvingly expressed as she checked out the various amenities at the school.
Situated on approximately six acres of land, the state-of-the-art school is equipped with facilities such as an elevator, multipurpose hall, music room, dance studio and laboratories for chemistry, physics and biology. Construction on the school began in October 2018 after the contract was awarded to R. Bassoo and Sons Construction Inc.
“It’s going to be a school that will be used as a model to show that once there are resources and trained teacher, children from anywhere can do well. It is probably going to be one of our most resourced schools given the labs and so on that we’ve seen,” Minister Manickchand said in an invited comment.

On the visit, Minister Manickchand was accompanied by Chief Education Officer, Dr. Marcel Hutson; MoE Head Engineer, Ron Eastman; MoE GSEIP Project Coordinator, Jimmy Bhojedat and Regional Education Officer, Devindra Persaud. A number of representatives from the contracting company were also present.
The school is built to accommodate up to 1,000 students, making it a Grade A school. It will also be a list B school, which speaks to its quality.
“We intend to build that up to an A over the next few years. We want to offer CAPE subjects here. It’s going to be fully staffed with competent trained graduate teachers and auxiliary staff,” Manickchand explained. The new secondary school is one of several that are being constructed as part of government’s overall plan to achieve Universal Secondary Education under the GSEIP Programme. Universal Secondary Education entails every Guyanese child of the required age having a secondary education.

“This school was one of six we conceived of in 2013, because we want to make sure we offer Universal Secondary Education across the country,” Manickchand noted.

Other schools being completed under the GSEIP Project include Good Hope and Yarrowkabra secondary, both of which are plagued with construction issues. The Prospect Secondary, for which the ceremonial sod was recently turned, is also being constructed under this project.
Once completed, the Westminster Secondary School will see the elimination of the need for “Primary Top” schools in Region Three.
In Guyana, “Primary Top Schools”, are primary schools with a secondary school department, and are used as an alternative for students who would not have attained enough marks at the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) to be placed at a secondary school.
Though a traditional secondary school runs from Grades Seven to 11, classes at “Primary Top” schools run from Grades Seven to Nine, and the students are usually transferred to a secondary school after writing the National Grade Nine Assessment (NGNA).
“It’s the same primary school doing secondary work, that of course is undesirable. It’s not likely to give the kind of results that we’re looking for; it’s not likely to give students opportunities they need to survive best in this world and so that’s why we conceived of these schools. I am extremely excited to be able to do that in the Region Three,” Manickchand said.