Education Minister Shaik Baksh has announced that the new school building which will house the secondary school students currently attending classes at the Wales Community High School is expected to be completed by October month end.

Government had allocated close to $100M for the construction of the block to ease congestion at the Wales Community High which also houses a primary school.

The school is operating a shift system to facilitate classes for both the primary and the secondary students.

Addressing scores of parents at a recent meeting at West Coast Demerara School, the minister disclosed that the new building will be opened in January 2010, by then it would be adequately furnished.

Earlier this term, Baksh has converted 40 Community High Schools into secondary schools with Six Forms, Form One being a remedial class to bring low performers at the National Grade Six Assessments (NGSA) on par with normal secondary school students.

This development, he said, is in keeping with his ministry’s thrust to widen access to universal secondary education and ultimately achieve universal secondary education.

Now the problem of congestion at the Wales Secondary School will soon be resolved, parents complain that the school lacks furniture and is under- staffed.

Baksh in response, reported that his ministry recently obtained $ 15 M from the Ministry of Finance to build 1,000 pieces of furniture and the Wales Community High as well as other schools in the Region Three (West Demerara/Essequibo Islands) will also benefit.

He also pointed out that while the Wales Community High and other schools are under- staffed, there are other schools that are over-staffed and his ministry is currently looking to rationalise the distribution of teachers in Region Three schools.

The Ministry of Education officials are reconstructing the data on staffing which was destroyed recently by the fire that gutted the ministry’s office at Vreed-en-Hoop.

The rationalisation will begin as soon as the lost data has been recreated, the minister said.