Contractor commits to completing $800M Good Hope Secondary School by May

Apr 15, 2021 News

A view of the almost completed $800M Good Hope Secondary School

The school’s multi-purpose hall.

Minister Manickchand engaging Brian Tiwari and Ganesh Sawh during her visit to the school last Tuesday.

Kaieteur News – BK International Incorporated has committed to completing the $800M Good Hope Secondary School by May 22, 2021. This development followed a site visit that was conducted by the Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, on Tuesday. Making the commitment was the company’s Managing Director, Brian Tiwari, and its Chief Engineer, Ganesh Sawh.
The contract for the construction of the state-of-the-art school was awarded to the company in October 2018. The works started that very month and a January 2020 deadline was given. However, 15 months later, the school is still incomplete. To that end, during her visit, Minister Manickchand, for the umpteenth time, stressed the importance of contractors completing their work on time. She said, “We cannot tolerate lengthy delays on projects.”
The Minister had made a similar utterance when she assumed office last year August. She had made it clear that the delay in completion was “wholly unacceptable” and that “people who bid for contracts and win them must ensure that they do what they have to do to realise the terms to which they have signed in the contract.”
During her recent visit, she also stressed that the completion of the school is important to Region Four, particularly the students living in communities like Paradise, Plaisance, Enmore and Good Hope, along the East Coast of Demerara. During the recent visit to the Good Hope School, Engineer Sawh informed the Education Minister that the majority of the works left to be completed on the school are electrical in nature.
It was recently reported by this publication that the Education Minister is hoping to have the school ready by the new school year, which begins in September.
It was also highlighted that last year September, following the sitting of the National Grade Six Assessment, students, who were awarded a place at the school, had to be accommodated at other schools because the school was incomplete and lacked a full complement of staff.
The school’s construction is part of the World Bank-funded Guyana Secondary Education Improvement Project (GSEIP), which aims to aid the achievement of universal secondary education, in keeping with modern standards. The GSEIP caters for the construction of three schools: the Good Hope Secondary School, the Westminster Secondary School and the Prospect Secondary School.
Upon its completion, the Good Hope School is expected to house 1,000 students and will have features similar to those at the recently completed Westminster School.