MINISTER of Education, Priya Manickchand, on Wednesday visited the Christ Church Secondary School, where she met with the school’s administration and saw first-hand the final preparations that are underway ahead of the students’ return.

The work being done includes the placement of furniture and other final arrangements, the ministry said in a Facebook post.

The school was maliciously set on fire in early 2023, displacing more than 500 students along with teachers. Plans to reconstruct the school were subsequently finalised and involved seven contracts amounting to $688.159 million.

The new three-storey building containing 20 classrooms was built at the same site and will accommodate the teachers and students who are currently being housed at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE), Turkeyen.

The new school has modern amenities including science and IT labs, and modern classrooms.

While a commissioning date is yet to be announced, Minister Manickchand said that teachers are assisting the ministry with setting up the new learning facility.

“You may recall we had this awful experience where it was lit afire and destroyed, but out of bad cometh good. And so now, we have a really beautiful, well-appointed, brand-new building for our students, and so today we’re moving in,” the minister remarked.

With the help of the teachers, who are working with great passion and excitement, the school will be filled with the necessary tools to help students to excel in their new learning environment.

She expressed, “The children who were placed here are children who got 95 and 94 per cent at NGSA, so this has always been a very good school. And we see that in the CXC results, so we hope to see and expect to see even better [performances] now that they have been given all these facilities. And of course we’re going to keep our eyes on it, but I’m really really glad that we’re finally moving in and our children are getting this brand-new school, and all of this is done in love from us to you.”