After devastating fire: $566.9M contract signed to rebuild North Ruimveldt Secondary School

The sod was turned for the reconstruction of several sections of the North Ruimveldt Multilateral School in Georgetown to the tune of $566.9 million on Wednesday. This development comes after parts of the school were destroyed by fire.

The fire, which occurred on June 19, 2021, devastated the school’s First to Fifth-Form classrooms; Science, Home Economics, and Information Technology laboratories, as well as the $3 million ‘smart’ classroom.
The Guyana Fire Service had found that the fire started in one of the classrooms on the third floor of the building, and was a result of a faulty duplex electrical point.
More than one year later, the sod was turned for the reconstruction of the institution, to be undertaken by KARES Construction. The $566.9 million venture is worth the investment, Education Minister Priya Manickchand indicated.
“This school where we would ordinarily place 150 children every year, this year we would only be able to place 50 to 60 students. This is the top school for South Georgetown, so it makes somebody in South Georgetown, many families… whose children ordinally could have come here this year, will have to travel further and go to more crowded places,” she said.
The Education Minister used the opportunity to respond to criticisms about not rebuilding the school in a timelier fashion.
“We can’t put money in a fertiliser bag and give it to a contractor and say build. We don’t get to do that… we had to go out to bid. We had to engage the person that will draw the thing that we are bidding for, we have to cost that, and then we have to give all contractors across the world a fair chance to bid for it. Those things take time,” she explained.

Community’s role
Moreover, the Education Minister said that although the project would be supervised by the consultant and the Education Ministry, she wanted the South Georgetown community to play an integral role in ensuring that the work was done according to contract.
She also said that when contractors failed to do what they were supposed to do, children and communities suffer.
“It is very important that we complete this at a high quality in the time that we said we would complete it, so that we can make sure that the children of South Georgetown see what we intended for them to receive,” she said.
Moving forward, she announced that wherever a school is being built, it would not be the engineer’s responsibility alone to ensure work is done properly. She said that each project would have an Education Officer attached to the construction who would stress the importance of the project being completed on time and at the highest quality.
Further, she said that the details regarding construction would also be made public so that members of the community could also hold contractors accountable.
Meanwhile, the Multilateral School’s Headteacher Allison Cosbert said that many people had doubts about the project. She said that on many occasions she had to reassure people that the Education Minister promised that the school would be rebuilt.
“I can stand here today to see that promise is now a reality. So, today’s turning of the sod and contract signing is something that I welcome, and I can speak for my staff,” she said.
The project should be completed in a matter of 14 months.
The new building will be a three-storey building and will accommodate around 450 to 500 students upon completion. It will house science labs, new and remodelled Information Technology labs, classrooms, staff rooms, a sanitary block, along with a modern external design. (G9)