New Christ Church Secondary building only at 35% completion

Priya Manickchand

-should have been finished in February this year

With an original completion date of February 2024, the new Christ Church Secondary School building is only at 35%, possibly calling into question a novel approach to construction where seven contractors were involved in the project rather than one.

When asked during a press conference on Tuesday if the Christ Church building would be ready for the September school term, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand hedged, stating that she was not an engineer and could not predict with certainty whether the project would be completed for the new  term. However, she noted that some parts of the construction process involve prefabricated materials, which could be installed quickly, potentially allowing for a rapid completion.

“I’m not an engineer. But sometimes what happens is because some of it is prefab off site, you could change from 35 to 80% in a week because you brought your prefab stuff and put it on, I’m not sure what is remaining. So, I want to be careful with saying it can’t finish for September, but I’m happy the contractors are seeing the wider public is interested in how they perform and is insisting that they perform according to contract,” she said.