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New $85M teaching block at St. Winefride’s Secondary commissioned
Kaieteur News – More students would now be properly accommodated at St. Winefride’s Secondary School as a newly constructed $85 million teaching block was on Wednesday commissioned at the institution.
Commissioning the new building which is now called Ms. Avril Crawford Block, was Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand. Ms. Crawford was the school’s first headteacher. Delivering brief remarks yesterday, the school’s headteacher Ms. Rowena Seymore stated that the new wing was conceptualised after it was reported in June 2022 that the school can only accommodate some 13 students in the Grade Seven level as compared to the normal 75 student enrollment.
Section of the $85M Ms. Avril Crawford Block at the St. Winefride’s Secondary School
She noted that this had caught the attention of officials from the ministry who made it their duty to look for space to accommodate the students. The headteacher shared that because of the accommodation at the time, Grade Seven students were reporting to school for two days while Grade Eight students were going to classes for three days. She added that this system then began to frustrate parents of students who were on the rotation basis.
“Today we are extremely happy that our students are seated comfortably. In the new wing, there are 114 Grade Nine students along with 21 Grade 11 students occupying the classrooms. In addition, we have one science lab which is accessible to anyone in the school,” she related.
In her address to the gathering, Minister Manickchand said after taking up office back in 2020, they had the problem of spacing in schools. “When we came into office in 2020, we had this problem in 2021 with where we could place students because with North Ruimveldt being down, and St. Mary’s being down, then St. George’s being down, then Christ Church being down so it’s a couple of years, we have had this problem. There was just no space to put children,” she explained.
Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand at the commissioning ceremony on Wednesday.
She noted that what was happening at the St. Winefride’s School, was that the Grade Seven and Eight children were the students who needed the foundation and the guidance the most and that they were only attending school on a rotation basis. “If I don’t want that for my children, I can’t want it for you,” she told students as she reveals the reason behind building the new block.
In addition to having a new teaching block, the minister also mentioned that the ministry would introduce new programmes at the school as the government is moving to make all students be well rounded not just academically. This publication had reported that the new building was built by Singh and Son Construction who had signed the contract back in November last year. The building is a two-storey structure which houses some five classrooms including a modern, fully outfitted science laboratory.
- constructed, Minister of Education, Ms. Crawford, Priya Manickchan, St. Winefride’s Secondary School
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