$163M estimated to rebuild burnt wing of Diamond Secondary School

Apr 07, 2022 News

The remains of the school building presently.

Kaieteur News – The reconstruction of one of the wings at the Diamond Secondary School which was destroyed by fire back in 2018 is estimated to cost $163,009,146 million.
This is according to a recent invitation for bids which was issued by the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Region Four, seeking a contractor to now construct a new wing at the school.
Kaieteur News understands that this project will form part of the $6.6 billion that was allocated in this year’s budget for the construction, rehabilitation, extension, and maintenance of educational facilities across the country.

A section of the building which was destroyed by the fire.

In an invited comment last month, the Regional Executive Officer (REO) of Region Four, Donald Gajraj, told this publication that the wing of the building which was destroyed will be rehabilitated to its previous size. At that time, the REO stated that the project will cost $75 million.
Gajraj said that when the budgetary allocation has passed through the national procurement process, the project “will go out to tender” and works will begin once a contract has been awarded. Now that the project is out to tender, the RDC’s public notice states that bidding will be conducted through the National Competitive Bidding Procedure specified in the Procurement Act 2003, and that the project is scheduled to open on April 26, at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) office.
In an interview with this publication last month, headmistress of the school, Ms. Lesmine Collins had expressed her gratitude now that the project is coming on stream this year. According to her, it is currently short on space to accommodate students. This, she said, has been the state of affairs since the fire destroyed the office and staff room areas, forcing her and teachers to occupy classrooms.
Also destroyed in the fire were the Information Technology (IT) lab and the school’s library. Eze Hamilton, the IT teacher, told Kaieteur News that the rebuilding of that section will benefit both the staff and students – especially IT students who have to write their Electronic Document Preparation and Management (EDPM) examinations.
This newspaper had reported that the project, once completed, will also save students from travelling to the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) in order to write their examinations, due to the lack of resources at the school.
“It is definitely great news, because after the fire we began using one of the classroom as the main office area and the Technical Drawing room as a staff room for teachers. The IT lab and library were also destroyed in the fire. We are currently using one of the science labs, which have been fitted with computer for IT class. This is not ideal because the computers should be in an air conditioned room, and the stools and tables that are currently being used were not designed to be used with a computer, especially since there is no back rest,” Hamilton said.
It was reported back in 2018 that the office area of the school was gutted by an early morning fire on Christmas Eve day. At the time of the fire, a press release which was issued by the Ministry of Education, stated that approximately 1:20am on December 24, 2018, the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) responded to a report of a fire at the school.
However, upon their arrival, the middle section was already engulfed with flames.
The release further stated that the cause of the fire was unknown at the time of the release and that the GFS conducted inspections to ascertain whether the fire was as a result of an electrical malfunction, but no issues were found with the electrical connections.
Further investigations then led to the cause and it was determined that the fire was an act of arson.