Good Hope, Yarrowkabra Secondary Schools to be completed this month – Minister

Both the Good Hope Secondary school, East Coast of Demerara (ECD), and Yarrowkabra Secondary on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway are set to be fully completed by the end of this month, which will significantly reduce overcrowding in schools in those areas. This was announced by Education Minster Priya Manickchand during a recent broadcast programme on Thursday.
According to Manickchand, “Yarrowkabra on the East Bank and Good Hope on the East Coast will finish by June month-end. The children on the East Coast [in] six schools are now sitting in hallways and under stairways of Primary schools. They’re high school children, sitting in primary schools doing some kind of work with teachers who are not trained for secondary education,” the Minister said.

“With the opening of Good Hope, I’m going to be able to close all the tops of those primary schools and put all the children in…secondary schools where they have facilities and teachers trained to teach secondary. Same thing with the East Bank, with the completion of Yarrowkabra,” Manickchand explained.
The Minister added that the focus is not only on building schools, but it is also on building human resources and training persons to be competent in the education sector.
“We still have to keep a firm eye on quality. We could see a very different-looking Guyana in 10 years. It’s not just building out the schools, it’s building out personnel at the same time, training people, for the kind of quality we want to produce, getting parental involvement and student interest and it’s exciting but it’s not an easy programme,” Manickchand related.
She also stated that before the end of July, several other schools across the country are expected to be completed, which include Queen’s College, The Bishops’ High School, St Roses, St Winefride’s, and East Ruimveldt Secondary Schools. The Christ Church and St George’s Secondary Schools are estimated to finish early next year.

The contract to construct the Good Hope Secondary School was awarded in 2018 to BK International to the tune of over US$4 million. Work commenced in October of that year with the original completion date being January 14, 2020. However, despite many extensions, the construction company was unable to deliver and as such, a new contract was signed with DEEN+ Partners for over US$2.6 million in December 2022, under the Secondary Education Improvement Project which is being funded by the World Bank.
DEEN+ Partners is expected to complete all outstanding works which include the installation of all electrical panels and cables to complete electrical connections, installation and connection of all plumbing fittings and fixtures, completion of the fences, pavements, walkways, and landscaping, general finishes to windows, doors, roof, walls, and ceilings, completion of all built-in furniture, repainting of the entire facility and remedial works to all floors.
When completed, 479 pupils will be placed in the school which will allow the Ministry to close the primary tops at the Paradise, Enterprise, and Enmore Primary Schools. It will also reduce overcrowding at the Cummings Lodge, Bladen Hall, Golden Grove, and Plaisance Secondary Schools.
Meanwhile, a contract totalling $790 million was awarded to R Bassoo and Sons in 2021 for the construction of the Yarrowkabra Secondary School. The project was set to be completed within an 18-month period.
That school, when completed, will have nine buildings complete with the requisite laboratories, designated space for industrial arts, a main lecture hall, and other auxiliary buildings, and will be able to accommodate 800 students.