By Antonio Dey
Chief Education Officer, Saddam Hussein, yesterday said that the regional executive and education officers of Potaro-Siparuni failed to inform the Education Ministry of deficiencies at the Mahdia secondary school dorm.
The ministry official was at the time addressing the eighth hearing of the presidential inquiry into the Mahdia dormitory fire which claimed 20 lives. He also stated that despite the Ministry of Education’s commissioned UNICEF report where recommendations were made to the Guyana Fire Service, and regional executive and education officers for grills to be removed from the Mahdia dormitory, nothing was done in that regard.
CoI Chairman, Major General (Retired) Joseph Singh seemed taken aback by Hussain’s response and asked, “So don’t you think the Department of Education should have taken actions and ensured that this was done considering the fact that there were no fire prevention methods prior to the fire?”
