Intermediate High school to reopen Monday, September 15

The Intermediate High School is scheduled to reopen for regular operations next Monday, September 15.{{more}}

The reopening of the school for the 2014/2015 school year, which was scheduled for September 1, had been delayed because of repairs being carried out on the school.

However, although the doors of the school remained closed, fifth formers were engaged in their lessons.

This disclosure was made by Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, as he addressed a press conference on Tuesday.

He said he was initially concerned about the students in the fifth form and whether they would fall behind in school work because of the closure of the school.

“The permanent secretary (Nicole Bonadie-Baker) told me today that the fifth form is not adversely affected by the delay because they have provided work for them and they meet in a particular area and also those in the technical division go down to the Kingstown Technical Centre,” he said.

Gonsalves expressed his unhappiness with the situation and explained that the delay in reopening the school is because of “the tardy mobilization to get the work done.”

The Prime Minister said that the Roads, Buildings and General Services Authority (BRAGSA) is the specialized agency which carries out work on schools. He added that 21 schools were earmarked for work to be done.

“I am not happy that students were out for a week and that is very much to be regretted and I am very sorry about that,” the Prime Minister said.

He said he suspected that the delay in completing the repairs was because of an inaccurate assessment of the amount of time the work was expected to take.

The works carried out on the school included construction of a septic tank/soakaway, repairs to damaged timber walls, the replacement of aluminium louvres and other minor repairs.

“I always insist that by the time school finishes, which is usually just around Carnival, that immediately after Carnival, work should begin.

“It may well be that they anticipated that they were going to finish the work within the time period, but when they actually got there, they had miscalculated the time.”

According to a release from the Ministry of Education, the school will reopen for regular operations on Monday, September 15 at 8:15 a.m. Orientation for all new and transfer students will take place today, Friday, September 12 at 8:30 a.m., while all members of staff were expected to report for duty yesterday, Thursday, September 11.(BK)