Mahdia CoI: Mahdia dorm was not a top priority according to 2022 report – Chief Education Officer 

…$882M expended since last year to improve dorms countrywide

According to a 2022 Education Ministry-commissioned assessment of all of the country’s dorm facilities, the Mahdia Secondary School’s female dormitory – that was engulfed in flames in May – was not among the Top Five dorms requiring immediate rehabilitation.
Chief Education Officer, Saddam Hussain made this disclosure on Tuesday, as the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the fatal Mahdia dorm fire continued its public hearings.

Funded by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the “Gender Sensitive Standards for Dormitory Schools in Guyana” report had revealed a number of deficiencies within dorm facilities across the country, one being the lack of fire prevention measures.
“There is a page in that document which outlines the recommended order in which the dormitories should be renovated [and] addressed. In other words, the worst dorm should be done first and so on. Mahdia did not make the top five,” Hussain said.
While the Sand Creek Secondary School dormitory required $222 million and the Anna Regina dorm required $180 million for repairs, the Mahdia Secondary School dorm facilities only required $90 million, Hussain relayed.
“The report says that Mahdia [dorm] was not one of the top priorities to be addressed. In fact, Mahdia had one issue and that is constant supply of electricity and water,” Hussain said.
He noted that while a need was recognised for expansion of the dorm facility and training of the people who manage it, no need for greater fire protection equipment was pointed out.
“The conduct of that report involved the stakeholders of that dormitory to give their views on what was needed – the students, the Head Teacher of the parent school, the dormitory staff. In that report, you will find that none of them said that there were issues with fire extinguishers and firefighting tools,” Hussain said.

Fire inspection report
Yet, a Fire Inspection Report conducted in February by Officer-in-Charge at the Mahdia Fire Station, Ryan Scott had revealed a number of issues in the Mahdia dorm, including the lack of fire alarms, exit signs and smoke detectors.
Scott, who testified before the Commission last week, explained that though this report was submitted to Divisional Officer Clive McDonald, Chief Fire Officer Gregory Wickham as well as the Regional Education Department Officer, no changes were made to improve the dormitory’s fire prevention practices.
Hussain noted that he had not come across this report before, and if he had, there is a process that would’ve ensued to ensure the matter was addressed.
“So, the first thing that the Regional Education Officer is required to do, apart from sending it to the Regional Executive Officer (REO) and so on, is to send it to the Deputy Chief Education Officer (DCEO) for administration. Once it goes there, then it’s in the system. The DCEO admin would send it to the CEO’s office – my office,” Hussain explained.
“I will then forward it to the Permanent Secretary, asking to facilitate with their counterpart in the Local Government Ministry, whether there are finances to make these adjustments. And if there isn’t financing, then what we do is we try to buttress it from whatever finances we have,” Hussain said.

Did not see report
Likewise, former Permanent Secretary of the Home Affairs Ministry, Mae Thomas – who testified separately on Tuesday as well – had also stated that she did not recall coming across this Fire Inspection Report.
“As Permanent Secretary, if I had seen it as urgent, I would’ve had a reported structure where I would’ve said ‘[Home Affairs] Minister Robeson Benn, please see and advise.’ And I’m sure he would’ve taken it to his colleague, the Minister for which the dorm fell under,” Thomas said.

Supplementary funds
When Fire Chief Wickham testified before the Commission, he cited the lack of funds as the reason for the lack of several key equipment at the Mahdia Fire Station, including breathing apparatus and breaking-in tools.
However, Thomas shared that the Home Affairs Ministry has an open-doors policy and should any agency under the Ministry require items to fulfil their duties, a request could’ve been made accordingly in which supplementary funds would’ve been sought.
She further added that it is up to the Fire Chief to prioritise the distribution of funding to Fire Stations across the country.

Improvements
Meanwhile, Hussain shared that improvements have been made to address the three main concerns raised within the dorms as it pertains to infrastructure, firefighting equipment and staffing.
In that regard, all dorms are now outfitted with fire prevention measures while all except those in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) are fully staffed.
Meanwhile, construction and rehabilitation have either commenced or have been completed in 70 per cent of the dorms, with plans to address all of the facilities before the first quarter of next year.
These changes, Hussain said, had to be done incrementally so as to avoid completely taking students out of schools and from 2022 to now, required $882 million to do so – a value projected to increase to $1 billion by the end of the year.
Hussain and Thomas both appeared before the Commission in response to a summons which was issued following their inability to present themselves as required last week. (G13)