Dear Editor,
The deadly fire which occurred in the dormitory of the Mahdia Secondary School in the early hours of Monday May 22, is reported to have claimed the lives of 19 pupils and injured many others.
I would like to express my condolences and sympathy to the bereaved families and their communities.
Much has already been written on this tragedy including a missive by Mr. Clement Rohee, a retired senior Govt. official who stated therein that, “he could not help but wonder how in this modern age of technological advancement and where technologies tend to occupy a greater part of our daily lives, fire of this type cannot be avoided”. This may well be so, but he did not ponder to think that until recently, Guyana was one of the poorest countries in the Americas and therefore the country has had limited resources to spend on education, healthcare, transportation, etc. There was also a lack of qualified engineers, architects, fire and building inspectors to enforce codes of practice for the various trades. Hence the Government through its Regional District 8 Administration had to decide how it allocated its scarce resources and it appeared that fire proofing of the dormitory at Mahdia was not on the agenda.
Further, many of the Regional Districts are poorly managed because they lack qualified personnel to execute the many programmes they are saddled with. Region 8 (Mahdia) is a case in point. Education falls under the Region’s Education Officer who reports to the Regional Executive Officer whose duties and responsibilities come under the Ministry of Local Development which has no experience with respect to educational matters. The Ministry of Education was largely left out in the cold on education matters in the Districts but apparently conducts examinations and curriculum development for the schools.
Almost on a daily basis there are fires of one kind or another occurring in various parts of the country with deadly consequences. Yet the Government has not seen fit to conduct serious intensive investigations as to their causes and enforce where applicable measures of compliance in accordance with the relevant codes to prevent them.
It is evident that the statutes by which the various districts in Guyana are governed need urgent revisions to enable them to better serve the communities they encompass. The Central Government has to be more assertive in its oversight of their management and to ensure that their budgetary allocations are spent on approved programmes and to the expected standards.
The dormitory at Mahdia Secondary was designed and built without any fire extinguishers, sprinklers, hydrants on the property, fire and alarm systems within the building. Further, the students had no training as to how they should exit the Dormitory in case there was a fire. Therefore, it was a tragedy waiting to happen. Equipping the Dormitory to satisfy these requirements would have been costly and was probably the cause why they were left out of the design. Interestingly, the School has solar power electricity installed.
Guyana has fire, safety and building codes but they are not legally binding. These codes should be upgraded and made into laws of the land and enforced by qualified inspectors. Many erected buildings presently have steel security grills on their windows and doors for obvious reasons but they need not be fire hazards if they are properly designed and the occupants trained to use them as and when the necessity arise.
The Ministry of Education (MoE) cannot rely on the Ministry of Public Works (MoPW) nor the Country’s Interior Districts to design and construct its educational facilities since they do not have the expertise and personnel to do so. Therefore, the MoE needs to establish a School Construction Division to design and build its education facilities to the standards necessary to provide an environment whereby students can develop their skills and abilities thereby enabling them to effectively cope with the modern age of technological advancement so necessary for their communities.
Finally, the dormitory at Mahdia was designed and built for transients not students as the layout clearly indicates.
Yours truly,
Charles Sohan
