Federal schools in St. Kitts undergoing extensive maintenance

Basseterre, St. Kitts (CUOPM) – The Ministry of Education is presently carrying out extensive maintenance work on several Federal schools in St. Kitts ahead of the start of the new 2014/2015 school term.

Minister of Education, Sen. the Hon. Nigel Carty said the work is in accordance with the previously conceived and conceptualized a maintenance plan in collaboration with the Department of Public Works.

“In Cayon for example, we are doing massive repairs at the primary school. We have down some work recently and I think there is still more work to be done at the Cayon High School. In fact the first school I had to make intervention as in relation to repairs, health and safety was the Cayon High School because when I became the Education Minister in 2010, one of the school buildings, the upper deck, that is the second floor had been broken right through and so that was a safety hazard for all of the students and teachers. So we had to intervene and we not only repaired that bridge but we made sure that we repair other parts of that building and other buildings on the school premises,” said Minister Carty.

He said extensive work on a number of primary and secondary schools, AVEC and the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (CFBC).

“We have also in the case of the Basseterre High School, done a maintenance plan, an air quality plan and a chemical hygiene plan and that will be a template for all schools and particularly in the case of the Secondary Schools,” Mr. Carty disclosed.

He said the Hygiene plan will be the chemical hygiene plan that will also apply to all of the Secondary Schools where biology, physics and chemistry labs exist.

“We want to really use this as an opportunity to take this to the next level, take it a notch up with respect to the quality of the environment in which our students and teachers work and study and to ensure the health and safety of all,” said Mr. Carty.

Last February, he disclosed in an interview on “Good Morning St. Kitts and Nevis that the Ministry of Education pays the Ministry of Public Works to bring all the schools up to scratch and then to hand over the regular maintenance and the up-keep to private contractors who on a month to month basis would make sure that restroom facilities and windows that are broken are repaired.

“You would appreciate the school is a tough environment because the students will run and play and there is a constant battering of the physical environment so there is need for constant monitoring and constant repair and upgrade. We are very happy that is on the horizon, having the schools repaired and refurbished and to ensure they remain at a very high standard and quality of our institutions,” said Minister Carty.