Government expects to save more than $600 million by refitting five secondary schools that had been earmarked for demolition. This was announced yesterday by Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh as he and Tertiary Education Minister Senator Fazal Karim toured schools in central Trinidad. Karim joined Gopeesingh at the Carapichiama West Secondary School on the second leg of school visit programme to assess clean-up work being done to reduce the risk of mosquito borne diseases.
Gopeesingh said the previous government had planned to demolish the buildings, which once housed junior secondary schools, at a cost of $90 million. Instead, he said, by next April students will be relocated so work can start on refitting the Five Rivers, Carapichiama, St Joseph, Marabella and Couva schools. The minister said the country’s 11 government and 14 private special needs schools were not sufficient to accommodate disabled students, so some of the school buildings would be refitted for that purpose. He said the buildings will be used jointly by the Education and Tertiary Education Ministries.
Karim said his ministry plans to use one of the buildings in central Trinidad as a UTT campus for teachers’ training to complement the existing colleges at Valsayn and Corinth. He said the buildings will be used by his ministry for three major programmes—Caribbean Vocational Qualification, the OJT and National Life Skills.