Minister of Education St. Clair Jimmy Prince says he is confident that, barring any unforeseen developments, the four schools that were not ready for reopening today (Monday) will meet the new reopening date.
On Friday, the Ministry of Education said in a press statement that Georgetown Secondary School will reopen on Wednesday, Sept. 4, while Calliaqua Anglican School, Kingstown Anglican School, and Park Hill Government School will reopen next Monday, Sept. 9.
Prince noted to iWitness News on Monday that his government is spending EC$6.5 million to repair the nation’s 94 schools.
“And as you’d expect, all would not be finished on time and I think, in some cases, you have a situation where they painted the floor or they painted with an oil paint and there is still a smell and we don’t want to risk it to make these toxic fumes affect the children. So we say give us a couple days for the smell to go away,” Prince said.
The education minister said that the important thing is that his ministry has developed a schedule to ensure that the lost instructional time is recovered.
He said that the contractors have assured his ministry that, barring any unforeseen developments, the new dates will be met.
“So we will stick to them. If there is a reason for us to change, then we will change but, as it is now, we are confident that we will reopen on those days. Barring unforeseen circumstances, we will open on the days we said we would,” Prince said.