St. George’s High school to be rebuilt at same location

Education Minister Priya Manickchand on Monday said that the St. George’s High school will be reconstructed at its original location in Georgetown since there have been difficulties in securing larger land spaces in Georgetown.

The upper flat of the high school was gutted by a fire in July this year. Since then, its students have been placed at other schools.

There have been plans to return those children to their school but the Minister noted that it has been difficult finding an alternative location to rebuild the school.

“While we would’ve preferred to find a really nice place that has large areas to play and do other things, finding land in Georgetown is really, really hard… It’s almost impossible.

“… While, initially, my feeling was that we should have fancier land space, I am persuaded that we can’t find that,” the Education Minister told reports at the sidelines of an event.

Another consideration, she explained, is that the location of the school needs to accommodate the students coming from different parts of Georgetown and Region Four.

So, the ministry is seeking to rebuild the school at its existing location.

The fire at this school, the Guyana Fire Service reported, was electrical in nature, stemming from an inoperable power outlet in the Social Studies department.

Because of this and other fires at schools, Manickchand was asked if the ministry was assessing schools’ safety and preparedness.

“One of the major things we will be doing shortly is looking at all the multi schools and other schools about how prepared they are and how much upgrading they need to take off the current realities,” she said.