[SKNIS] The Ministry of Education has committed to completing remedial work at the Irish Town Primary School before the start of the school term, which begins in just about two weeks. Government commissioned a project to improve the safety and security system at the school, from earlier this year, following a senseless act of violence committed on the school’s premises. Face-to-face learning was immediately suspended as a result.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Dr. Geoffrey Hanley made the disclosure yesterday, August 16, while on the program ‘In Focus.’
“The nation would remember the tragic death of one of our security officers on the Irishtown Primary School campus. The Ministry of Education was very proactive in ensuring that this is an opportunity for us to present what another ‘safe school’ can look like and we set out to do that with a number of stakeholders,” the Minister of Education outlined.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Mrs. Lisa Pistana, who accompanied the Deputy Prime Minister on the program, provided an overview of work that has been already completed
“Out of tragedy I think comes positiveness, and so we banded together and identified, as a Ministry, the areas that needed immediate work. One of them was the enclosures at the very front of the building so we put in enclosures so that persons can’t just walk right onto the compound because we have our children playing in that particular area from time to time. We also relocated the principal’s office. Before you would have to walk all the way into the school to almost the back of the school to get to the principal’s office. That should be one of the first faces that you meet, so we relocated it, refurbished the space and we’re just doing the final little touches to it now,” the Permanent Secretary said.
To further address security concerns, the PS shared information on upgrades made in that regard.
“We also added additional security systems so as to make sure that our students and our teachers remain safe while they are on the campus. Those are just a few of the things we would have accomplished and like I said we have one or two things to complete but they are going to be completed before school starts and we are going to open up on September 4th,” she revealed.
Permanent Secretary Pistana also outlined that the roofing issues are being addressed this week. This is in addition to the bolstering of the floors of the upper classrooms which were experiencing some sagging and the erecting of a retaining wall to prevent soil erosion.
The education officials expressed their gratitude to the parents, residents of the community and the corporate partners, including the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB), the St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank, St. Kitts Masonry Products, Surrey Paving, and the Garden Hotspurs community group, that came onboard to assist with some of the renovation work on the school.
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