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An Artist’s impression of what the $821M Diamond No. Primary School will look like when completed. (Photo courtesy, Priya Manickchand/ Facebook)
Kaieteur News – Minister of Education Priya Manickchand alongside her team on Friday turned the sod to officially commence construction of a new $821 million primary school at Diamond and a new $296 million Houston Secondary School on the East Bank of Demerara (EBD).
In January, Kaieteur News reported that following the national bidding process, the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) office awarded a contract worth $296,916,480 to K&S General Contractors Inc. for the Houston Secondary project.
In a brief live broadcast on the ministry’s page, Minister Manickchand said the current school building is being demolished and that the new school will cater for some 400 students from the lower East Bank area when completed.
“That modern facility is going to have individual classrooms, it is going to have labs like IT, Science, TVET, modern staff room, library and counseling spaces and the other kind of things any other secondary school should have and we are very happy to be able to do this. I am counting on the contractor who won this bid through the public bidding process in accordance with our Procurement Act, I am counting on him to finish it on time at a high quality at the cost he bided for,” she said.
Kaieteur News reported that the new Houston Secondary is one of the few secondary schools the ministry is currently constructing on the East Bank area. The ministry is also constructing a large secondary school at Kaneville, and at Prospect, EBD. When these projects are completed, overcrowding is expected to be a thing of the past.
Meanwhile, with new housing areas opening up at Diamond and surrounding communities, the Education Ministry will be building a new primary school there.
At that sod turning exercise, the minister said the new Diamond No. 2 Primary School when completed will accommodate 750 children.
“Right now, the Diamond / Grove Old School and Diamond No. 1 Primary are already overcrowded, are already filled and so we definitely need this as new primary school,” she explained.
The minister said the school will be built using prefabricated materials and is expected to be completed within a 10 months period.
“The schools we are designing now, such as this one they have taken all the child-friendly international standards into consideration and this school is going to have that,” she added.
This publication understands that the modern school building will be built by Renovess Limited at a cost of $821,807,252.
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