There are concerns about the conditions at the $427.5 million Leonora Technical and Vocational Institute, including non-functioning workshops and exposed wires in classrooms, but both the Education Ministry and the institution’s administration maintain that it is properly functioning.
In a letter to this newspaper, a concerned citizen alleged that the life of the project was extended three times for more than two years to facilitate the contractors’ mandate. It was also alleged that although construction has been completed and the institution looks good from a distance, students fear for their safety because of inferior work, including poor electrical wiring. It was claimed that wires and electrical sockets can be seen exposed in classrooms, where they should be installed in the walls.
Workshops are said to be inadequately furnished, with either inferior equipment or no equipment at all for the relevant programmes. It was also alleged that one of the workshops was flooded recently.
“A staff member at the Leonora Technical Institute sat on one of the toilets and it crumbled to pieces and I assure you the sitter was not overweight,” the letter stated. “There are serious health and safety violations in a brand new facility,” the writer added.
Stabroek News independently verified that there are wires hanging out of the walls and some of the workshops are not operable. A group of students told this newspaper two weeks ago that the welding workshop was the only operational unit at the institute.
When contacted two weeks ago, the institute’s administrator Celia Chung told this newspaper that to her knowledge every aspect of the institution was functioning.
The institute was commissioned by former minister of education Shaik Baksh, a few weeks ahead of last year’s general elections. However, it officially opened its doors to students in January this year.
Ministry of Education School Boards Coordinator Melcita Bovell told Stabroek News yesterday that all the allegations against the institution were false. In particular, she was baffled at the claim that the project’s life had been extended.
“I cannot understand the concept of extending the life of the project when the life of the project is not up as yet, when we have about six months officially before it is up,” she stated.
Bovell added that time is of the essence and that is the reason the institution was opened for teaching. She explained that if they had waited for the contract to be up, five months of tuition would have been lost.
She added that currently they are in the liability period of the contract, which means that if there is a flaw with the construction of the building or any internal problem the contractor will be liable to do repairs at no additional cost.
She said that all the workshops are active, while giving a recent example of the students repairing a car that was involved in an accident. “About a month ago, a car went into the trench and everything was damaged and these children, with the help of their teacher, brought it back to brand new. Also, just the other day the electrical students went and wired a house in the community because they are undergoing competency training,” she boasted.
On the claims of there being inferior electrical installation, Bovell stated that the sockets were on the ground so as to prevent persons from tripping over the electrical wires. She added that the sockets were also covered by the equipment that they are used to power, so they pose no risk to anyone in the vicinity.
Bovell also knew nothing about the workshop being flooded. She added that all students attending the institute wear overalls and industrial boots and challenged the claim that the institute violates health and safety regulations.
“What our failure is in this case is that the project was so far ahead of its state that we jumped ahead and started school, because every year you waste in education is a whole batch of students wasted,” she said.
