The Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the Mahdia Secondary School dormitory fire found that no action was taken by the previous government regarding dorms despite this being flagged following a report in 2017 on the education sector.
According to the Mahdia CoI report, there was a grave neglect of duty bordering on recklessness by those vested with power for the care and welfare of the country’s children residing in dormitories.
The CoI report into the dorm fire, which claimed 20 lives on May 21, 2023, referenced the testimony of current Chief Education Officer Saddam Hussein on October 10, 2023 who said that in 2015, then Minister of Education Dr Rupert Roopnaraine had commissioned an inquiry into the education sector in Guyana.