It has been ten years since Biche High School was shut down, after reports of gas leaks and land slippages, but now that it has got a $13 million make-over, Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh says the school is ready to reopen next month. Speaking with reporters during a tour of the Tabaquite constituency yesterday, Gopeesingh said he had no idea why the school was shut down in the first place, as two independent geotechnical and geophysical studies showed it was structurally sound. "Officials of the Ministry of Education visited the Biche High School and we are proud to say that 95 per cent of the infrastructure has been completed," he said. "Retaining walls are being done, as well as the driveway.
"All steps are being taken to ensure that the Teaching Service Commission will bring the teachers back in the school. "We understand that 40 students have been allocated for Form One, a further 40 for Form Two and 50 for Form Three. "The primary school is almost completed and we are well on our way to opening Biche High in September. "I will have to take a note to Cabinet indicating that all the geophysical and geotechnical studies have all been satisfactory. "We see no reason why Biche was closed for ten years...We found no evidence of infrastructural weakness, or land slippage, no gas leakages. "This school was closed for no reason causing immense suffering to thousands of parents and children who have had to travel for almost 20 miles to go to schools every morning and evening," Gopeesingh said.
Meanwhile, he said, between July 2010 and December 2011, the Government would have completed construction of 47 early childhood centres, 12 primary schools and five secondary schools. So far, Gopeesingh said, 14 early childhood centres have already been completed and by the end of August, a further nine would be ready to open. He said the cost of each school was $6.5 million to $7 million, compared to $40 million under the PNM. "So instead of building one school for $40 million, we can build between seven and ten schools for that same cost," he added. "So that by end of December, we would have completed 12 primary schools." Gopeesingh said renovations were done on 236 schools over the August vacation at a cost of $100 million.
Saying that the Government was moving successfully towards its mandate of free universal pre-school education, Gopeesingh said a total of 3,600 pre-school teachers would have to be trained over the next three years. "We have a total of 600 early childhood centres throughout the country," he said. "I have spoken with the Minister of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education to liaise with COSTAATT, UTT, UWI, University of Southern Caribbean and Servol to have 1,000 teachers trained per year for the next three years." He added that the Government was also looking at helping special-needs children.
"We believe that 30 per cent of the school population, which amount to 5,000 children per year, from the birth rate have emotional, behavioural, and psychological abnormalities," he said. "Some have learning disorders like attention deficit syndrome, dyslexia and autism. "We are now in the process of doing a pilot study with eight early childhood education centres and eight primary schools to determine the true incidence and prevalence of these special-needs children. "We will be moving towards managing and treating them for these disorders." Gopeesingh said the Government was also moving towards paying outstanding debts to contractors.