The construction of the new Christ Church Secon-dary School is expected to commence in two weeks as contracts to the tune of $688.1 million were signed between the Ministry of Education (MoE) and seven contractors yesterday.
The new building, which will be rebuilt at Middle and Camp streets, Georgetown, is scheduled to be completed by February 2024 with different phases of works being carried out simultaneously by several contractors.
This approach was taken by the MoE as it was deemed to be the quickest way to rebuild the school which was destroyed by suspected arson in January of this year.
“The expertise that we received from the engineers, I am not an engineer, suggested that we could get this school in a shorter time, if we had, instead of one contractor doing everything, if we divided it up into components, and lots, which is what we did,” Minister of Educa-tion, Priya Manickchand, explained.
Manickchand along with Chief Education Officer Saddam Hussain and other ministry officials witnessed the signing of the contracts in the ministry’s boardroom.
The contract signing was done by Permanent Secretary in the MoE, Alfred King, and the five awarded contractors – BM Property Investment Inc – a subsidiary of BM Soat Auto Sales; Zeco Group of Services Inc; N Balgobin and Sons Contracting Ser-vice and Electrical Sup-plies; A Ograsein and Sons General Contracting; and Pantheon Construction Inc. Innovative Engineering Consultancy Services was awarded the contract for supervision of the construction of the school.
The short time span for the construction of the school will in no way hinder the quality of work in the construction process. The work will be combined and carried out in a simultaneous manner without safety, strength, or standards being compromised, the minister added.
“As a result of the simultaneous approach, yes we are confident that based on how we have set out the work plan… one of the things we would pay keen attention to is the foundation and the superstructure of the building and that will not be compromised [as] we will ensure that safety and strength of that part is up to standards,” the Ministry’s Special Projects Officer, Ron Eastman added.
According to the minister, the procurement pro-cess, which commenced in March, followed the competitive process as stipulated in Guyana’s Procure-ment Act.
The new school building measuring 209 feet by 70 feet will be able to accommodate a maximum of 500 students, with 20 classrooms, and will feature all the science laboratories, TVET laboratory, electrical and woodworking laboratory, information technology laboratory, home economics laboratory, and art and music rooms and teachers’ quarters.
The building will also be outfitted with fire prevention mechanisms such as smoke alarms, extinguishers and a fire hose system.
While responding to questions on the fire prevention system in the new building, Eastman explained that they have designed the building to accommodate preventative measures and will be using less combustible materials in the construction of the school.
“Following that unfortunate event, the Ministry would have ensured that in this new design, that we meet the standards of all fire prevention… in this new project in this building itself. So, there are several components that we include, that not only alert, but are very much preventative… Some of it includes fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, [and] we also have some of the materials used as well that will not be that highly flammable,” Eastman added.
Prior to the signing, Manickchand emphasised that they will be holding the contractors to their specified timelines as the students continue to be inconvenienced and are forced to travel greater distances to receive an education.
“We have been very clear to everyone that currently, the students of Christ Church are housed, relatively comfortably but very far away, considering where they are coming from. So, we have managed to house them at the Cyril Potter College of Education, where for the most part, their education has not been severely interrupted. I am deeply grateful to the teachers, who immediately rose to the challenge, and led by a fantastic head teacher and deputy head teacher, who were able to have their team produce and perform as though they were in familiar circumstances,” she underscored.
The minister announced that by the new school term in September 2023, the construction work at Queen’s College, the Bishops’ High School, St Rose’s High School, Good Hope Secondary School, Yarrowkabra Secondary School, Abrams Zuil Secondary School, East Ruimveldt Secondary, and St Winefride’s Secondary will be completed. She mentioned that the North Ruimveldt Secondary School is also expected to be completed a month later. The Education Minister explained that these works will allow significantly more children to be accommodated in those schools.
The seven lots and companies awarded are as follows:
Lot 1 – Construction of Sub-Structure – BM Property Investment Inc ($303,595,000)
Lot 2 – Super-Structure – Zeco Group of Services Inc. ($295,137,706)
Lot 3 – Installation of Electrical Infrastructure & Fixtures – N. Balgobin & Sons Contracting Service & Electrical Supplies ($41,938,500)
Lot 4 – Installation of Plumbing Infrastructure and Fixtures – BM Property Investment Inc. ($17,600,000)
Lot 5 – Installation of Air Conditioning Infrastructure and Units – A. Ograsein & Sons General Contracting ($10,745,000)
Lot 6 – Installation of Fire Prevention Units – A. Ograsein & Sons General Contracting ($6,759,000)
Lot 7 – Masonry and Finishing Work – Pantheon Construction Inc ($12,385,800)
In January, fire struck the Christ Church Secondary School building displacing 502 students, 39 teachers and 9 ancillary staff. The Guyana Fire Service after its investigation had concluded that the fire was act of arson and had several points of origin.
