School Sites Restored by Summer

Over the last six months, reconstruction contracts have been put in place at nearly every school site, and repairs are proceeding apace. At this rate, all sites should be restored by this summer, with a few exceptions where the extent of damage requires either demolition or major renovation.

This achievement is against a background in which all government schools experienced the wrath of Hurricane Ivan — some more than others.

The reconstruction phase, however, is only one aspects of returning schools to normalcy. Schools had to recover in short-order to return children to the classrooms. Despite many challenges, including physical damage requiring a reconstruction programme of some $18 million and losses in assets (books, teaching materials, etc.) of around $6 million — all government schools were reopened on a sliding timetable culminating on 29 November, a mere two months after the hurricane. This was achieved with minimal disruption to a priority group — Year 12 examination students — who returned much earlier, on 21 October.

And with the reconstruction underway and the curriculum moving everyday closer to normalcy, schools officials this week reflected on what it took to arrive at this mid-point.

“To battle against the odds and open schools when we did was a remarkable achievement. We had to use every resource available to get students back into school as soon as possible,” said Deputy Permanent Secretary for Education Mary Rodrigues.

“From the beginning, we had a number of key priorities in place,” she explained. “These included providing a safe and healthy environment for our students; replacing equipment and educational materials; providing counselling support in schools; focusing on the curriculum and developing strategies for making up for lost school time.”

It was decided, explained Mrs Rodrigues, that the recovery efforts would be most effective if there were a central base for communication, along with a team to lead the recovery process. A base was established at the Schools’ Inspectorate and staff from the Ministry and the Education Department were redeployed to focus on a variety of tasks. These included establishing priorities and strategies; monitoring progress for the recovery process; carrying out surveys; providing press updates, and acting as link officers for schools. Schedules for health and safety checks on all schools, together with essential remediation work, were also put in place with the Environmental Health Department.

Mrs Rodrigues said that the Public Works Department (PWD) played a significant role in the recovery process. They carried out assessments on the schools and appointed contractors and the project managers monitoring the repair work. Mr. Jim Scott was appointed project manager to oversee all the repairs.

In spite of efforts to accelerate the recovery, delays did hamper progress at some sites: “We tried to cover all our bases, but there were aspects of the repair programme that were simply out of our direct control,” said Mrs. Rodrigues.

“These included the reconnection of key services such as electricity and phone lines; the usage of schools as hurricane shelters; shipping schedules and the availability of materials for repairs; the ability to secure contractors with sufficient labour. Delays were also caused by health and safety concerns,” she explained.

The process of putting contracts in place was a difficult one explained Jim Scott: “The local building industry has been faced with an enormous amount of work to be completed in a relatively short space of time, so we are competing with the many private sector projects.”