$2B Reg 1 Kwebanna Secondary School will change lives – Education Minister

In keeping with its goal of providing universally accessible secondary school education across Guyana, the Education Ministry on Wednesday signed six contracts, totalling $2.017 billion, to build a new high school at Kwebanna in Region One (Barima-Waini).
During the contract-signing exercise, Education Minister Priya Manickchand stressed the need for a secondary school to be built in this community, as high school-level students are currently being accommodated in a primary school with no trained teachers.

“The children in the Kwebanna area are going to a primary school where there are no secondary-trained teachers, so there are children along various rivers [who] are just marking time in primary school until they age out,” Manickchand said.
“So we need this school, particularly to be able to offer quality education; it’s going to change lives,” she said.
Some 600 learners would be able to seek an education at this new facility, and a dormitory would be built to accommodate about 250 of them. A teachers’ living quarters would also be constructed to house some 25 teachers, as the Ministry intends to send trained educators to teach at the new institution with an eventual goal of having a pool of educated, trained personnel available within the community itself.
“If we didn’t graduate high school children from these areas, then we can’t get teachers in there from the area. We now have to take (trained) teachers in, and they have nowhere to stay…so we’ll need (the living quarters),” Manickchand explained.
“There’s going to be a point, about 10 to 15 years from now, where the children going to this school are going to be the teachers. The children who come out (of this high school) will go to Teachers’ Training College and University of Guyana, and go back to (their community), and we won’t even need teacher housing anymore,” Manickchand added.
Following a competitive bidding process, open since January, this new building was divided into six lots among three companies to allow for simultaneous work, and as such, is expected to be completed within seven to eight months.
Supreme Contracting & Supplies was awarded both the $187,735,280 contract to complete site development works as well as the $205,242,780 contract for sub-structure works of the school building.
Bree’s Enterprise received the $189,413,616 contract to complete sub-structure works of the dormitory, while AS Construction was given the $157,196,650 contract to complete sub-structure works of the teachers’ quarters.
Meanwhile, Singh & Son Constructure were awarded both the $1,08,915,650 contract for external works as well as the $196,916,430 contract for finishing works. CB & Associates was also earlier selected as a consultant on the project.
This one-flat building, which would measure 559 feet by 25 feet, is expected to feature over 30 classrooms, a science centre with Physics, Chemistry and Biology Labs, a TVET centre with Industrial and Home Economic Labs, a student canteen and cafeteria, and a sanitary block. Permanent Secretary of the MoE, Alfred King, has noted that the building would also include a number of fire prevention facilities.
“Given all of our recent experiences and reports from the Guyana Fire Service, it will be fitted with firefighting equipment, the appropriate escape exits and doors, fire alarm systems, extinguishers, and so on,” King has said.
The Education Ministry continues on its aggressive agenda of providing a high-quality level of education for all, having signed several multimillion-dollar contracts last month to rebuild Christ Church Secondary School, St George’s High School, and St Mary’s Secondary School.
Most recently, the US$5.15 million Good Hope Secondary School on the East Coast of Demerara and the Gy$585 million Abram Zuil Secondary School on the Essequibo Coast were also commissioned.
Minister Manickchand has noted that works on the Yarrowkabra Secondary School, St. Rose’s Secondary, Queen’s College, East Ruimveldt Secondary, North Ruimveldt Secondary and St Winefride’s Secondary are expected to be completed soon.