The reconstruction of the One-Mile Primary School, Linden is at a stand-still as government has not yet released the $60 million it promised for the project and other major backers have pulled out because the government was welcomed on-board.
Soon after the August 12, 2012 fire razed what was Linden’s largest school to the ground, Education
Minister Priya Manickchand had said that the school would be constructed in about 18 months. However, almost one year later, only the school’s foundation, a few concrete walls and beams, and some wooden fixtures have been completed. This reality, coupled with the fact that the government has not released the funds which it has promised makes it difficult to believe that the school can be completed within the projected timetable.
An even bleaker picture is painted when one considers the fact that some of the project’s most valuable stakeholders—those who have already donated vast sums of cash—ceased making donations after learning that the government would be funding the school’s reconstruction.
“Since the allocation of $215 million by the government, the major stakeholders have withdrawn their funding,” said Alishaw Barker, head of the school’s rebuilding committee.
Barker disclosed that with the donations they have already received from these stakeholders—approximately $19 million—they have been able to complete considerable amounts of work, including constructing the school’s foundation, building walls as well as installing wooden fixtures. She added that in an effort to speed up the work, a portion was used to pay for labour during the week since voluntary labour was only available on the weekends. These amounts, however, she said, have already been depleted, and there is no more money to continue with the programme at this time.
“We were hoping to complete a section of the school by September but this is no longer possible since the major stakeholders have withdrawn their funding and the government has not yet released the amounts which were promised,” Barker shared when Stabroek News visited Linden on Tuesday. Furthermore, she said that the government has reduced the $215 million to $60 million; an amount she says is in insufficient to complete the works to the specifications they had decided upon.
“To complete the school from where we are now, it would come up to the $215 million ’cause an estimate was done and it was determined that it would take $215 million to take it from where we left it to completion,” Barker said.
She said that an explanation as to why the amount was reduced was not offered by the government.
Nevertheless, she said that the $60 million would take the project a far way. “If we get the $60 million it will also take us a far way.
We appreciate the government coming on board, we love what they are doing and we just hope that they give us the money speedily so we can continue our rebuilding programme,” she said.
Manickchand, however, explained that it is against Guyana’s financial laws for the government to release funds to a committee. She said that the government had advertised for a consultant to draw up a design and provide supervision once a contract has been tendered and awarded.
As it relates to a specific amount, she said that the responses to the government’s advertisement for a consultant will determine the cost at which the school will be rebuilt.
In the interim, students continue to be housed at the One-Mile Nursery, Wismar Hill Primary School and the Bayrock Community Centre, where, Barker said they continue to be subjected to less than ideal conditions. The One Mile school had housed 843 students.
“Right now the situation under which our children are being housed is horrible. They are clustered.
It’s really, really, crowded,” she said. As such, she said that the committee is encouraging all of its stakeholders to continue supporting the school’s reconstruction. Barker also noted that the children were suffering as a result of the current arrangement.
The “bring a block lay a block” and “sponsor a wall” programmes are still ongoing, she said, and stakeholders are encouraged to support these initiatives.
