NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (June 01, 2021) – – The Ministry of Education in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) intends to get an early start on the repair work carried out at public schools across the island annually, during the summer vacation.
Hon. Troy Liburd, Junior Minister of Education in the NIA, said the ministry is using the two-week closure of schools as an opportunity to conduct assessments to determine what repairs will be necessary so that work can get underway as soon as schools close in July for the summer vacation.
The Minister, accompanied by Mr. Kevin Barrett, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, and Mr. Alex Percival, Supervisor of the Maintenance Team at the Ministry of Education, visited the two public high schools, Charlestown Secondary School (CSS) and Gingerland Secondary School, (GSS) on May 31, 2021.
During the visit to GSS Mr. Barrett said it is important for the ministry to ensure that students have the best possible environment for learning.
“We thought that doing this early at this time would be good for us…We are trying to see how best we can provide the best form of education for our children and doing things like this I believe would put us on a good path in terms of the infrastructure and things that should be in place to make children safe and comfortable in doing their work,” he said.
He said due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on government finances, repairs and upgrade requests would have to be prioritized.
“We know that we are still in a situation where we have to prioritize. The economy is such that we cannot do everything that really needs to be done, so we are here looking at all of those things that should be done, and then we’ll prioritize that list,” he noted.
Principal Mrs. Lineth Williams and Deputy Principal Mr. Kayno David guided the ministry officials around the GSS compound to identify the work they would like to see undertaken.
Hon. Liburd indicated that during the course of this week the team will be visiting the public primary schools to carry out similar exercises.