…$11B needed to bring all schools to minimum standard – Pres Ali
After close to two years of work, the new $585 million Abram Zuil Secondary School in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) was officially commissioned on Thursday.
President Dr Irfaan Ali and Education Minister Priya Manickchand at the commissioning
The new building, expected to accommodate about 810 students, includes 27 classrooms – seven of which have interactive boards and computers; administrative offices; three science laboratories; an Information Technology (IT) laboratory; a multipurpose hall; a staff room; a medical room and a learning resource centre.
In time to come, the facility will also be equipped with an elevator to aid students with physical disabilities. Education Minister Priya Manickchand explained that this new facility was part of a continuous effort by the Government to provide high-quality education across the country.
“This is our commitment to you – that whichever of the eight houses that you go to here on the Essequibo Coast, we are going to deliver the same high quality of education,” Manickchand said.
“We can make education equal. We can make sure that all the services in this, those schools – the libraries, the labs, the trained teachers, the textbooks, the lab equipment, the chemicals, the sewing machine – we could make sure it is in every school and that every school performs and the same quality of education is delivered to each child. That is our aim,” Manickchand said.
Meanwhile, President Dr Irfaan Ali commended the work of all stakeholders in developing the new secondary school and noted the importance of providing better services and delivering better outcomes for the people of Guyana.
He added that based on a recently-conducted condition survey of every education facility in Guyana, an estimated $11 billion is required to bring them to a minimum standard – an investment that the Government is making efforts to achieve.
“So, at Cabinet [on Thursday], we considered this condition survey and assessment, and we have decided that notwithstanding the tremendous resources that we already have in the budget this year, we are going to go for supplementary provision so that we can start an acceleration of this $11 billion investment,” President Ali said.
“And then we have already decided that we’re going to projectise this investment in a multi-year, multi-programme agenda for education so that we can accelerate this investment and bring all our facilities to a minimum standard,” he added.
The President said that the Government was on a trajectory to not only to build new physical facilities, but to build an entire ecosystem surrounding the education system that is supportive of the holistic development of children across the country. President Ali noted that several years ago, there was approximately an 85 per cent disparity between primary education in the hinterland versus that in urban areas.
“We are now using investment in secondary education…and that is why these investments are so critical and important to the holistic approach in ensuring that our promise of having universal secondary education is realised,” Ali said.
On Wednesday, the new Good Hope Secondary School, East Coast Demerara (ECD) was similarly commissioned, with that facility expected to accommodate approximately 429 students.
Education Minister Priya Manickchand explained that this new facility was part of a continuous effort by the Government to provide high-quality education across the country.
