New secondary school at Jawalla to accommodate 500 students

…several primary tops to be closed

Another step towards achieving universal secondary education will see the establishment of a new secondary school in Jawalla, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni).

Education Minister Priya Manickchand and other senior officers of the Education Ministry visited the community to determine a possible location for the school. Manickchand said the new secondary school would be the second of its kind to be erected in the Upper Mazaruni District, and it would help to ease the overcrowding at the DC Caesar Fox Secondary School at Waramadong. She noted that it would provide students in other communities, such as Kamarang and Philippi, with the opportunity to receive a sound secondary education. Those students are currently either not receiving a secondary education or are being educated in primary tops, a secondary department in a primary school.
“If you know what is happening right now in the other secondary school in the Upper Mazaruni, called DC Caesar Fox in the Waramadong community, the school is overcrowded. It does not have space for other children, and children across the region, in other places like Kamarang and Philippi and those other schools, are going to secondary departments in primary schools. That is most undesirable for a sound secondary education,” Minister Manickchand explained.
Manickchand said that with establishment of this new secondary school, the Ministry of Education would be able to close the primary tops in Philippi, Wax Creek, Chinoweing, Imbaimadai, Jawalla, Quebanang, Kako and Kamarang.
The new school will house 500 students in the classroom and 400 students in the dormitories. Once completed, it will be equipped with laboratories catering to the teaching of Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Information Technology; cater to Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET); and have a Home Economics room, library space, and spacious classrooms.
“We’re going to reduce the burden of the overcrowding that is happening right now. I’m very happy to get kicking on this project right now; so, hopefully, by the end of the first quarter of next year, we have a secondary school in this village,” the Minister declared.
The area in Jawalla is heavily forested, and would have to be cleared before construction can commence.
The Education Ministry is aiming to make universal secondary education a reality by 2025. Universal access to secondary education is the ability of all students to have equal education regardless of their social class, race, gender, sexuality, ethnic background or geographic location.
Universal education at the primary level was achieved in the early 2000s. The PPP/C Administration, since its assumption to office, has embarked on an aggressive drive to achieve universal secondary education nationwide. (G12)