SCHOOL SINKING IN SWAMP

The status of the school was revealed by Education Minister Anthony Garcia at the Conversations with the Prime Minister event held at the Point Fortin East Secondary School on Tuesday evening. The revelation was in response to a parent asking how soon her child and other students of the school could expect to be moved out of the community centre and into a new, more comfortable school.

“Earlier this year,” said Garcia, “the MP for the area and myself visited a number of schools in this area including the Fanny Village Government School. What we have found is that the new school that was being constructed was being constructed in a swamp, and the school is sinking.” Garcia added, “We are taking measures to ensure that those who were responsible for the design would be held accountable, because we cannot understand how a school could be built in a swamp. In addition to that, we have identified a number of schools that we are going to continue the construction and as soon as we have the requisite funds, the Fanny Village Government School would be among those that we would be constructing.” Construction of the new school began in 2015 after the old structure was burnt in April that year. Since then, Standards One through Three students were accommodated in the community centre, while Standards Four and Five were housed in a prefabricated building. The school has an enrolment of approximately 250 students.

In a telephone interview with Newsday yesterday, Garcia said the building is not usable and would therefore be demolished.

He could not say when or where construction of a new school would begin, but assured that discussions were underway between the Ministry of Education and the Education Facilities Company Limited.

Garcia said the original designers of the building, intended to be a two-storey building, were fired. When another designer was hired, it was decided that a single-storey structure might have been able to stand up on the site. He said government is now in search of a new location for the construction of the school.

Minister in the Ministry of Education Dr Lovell Francis told Newsday his investigations into the school revealed that villagers warned the contractors against building the school on that site.

“The villagers told me they told the contractor to be very careful about building the school on that site because it used to be a dam so the water table there is very high.” He said prior to this government’s tenure, there were also plans to retrofit the sinking school which would have skyrocketed the cost from $28 million to about $68 million.

“The end of the tale is a sad one because we have children who are in a community centre so the community does not have use of the centre. We have $28 million odd on the ground that cannot be used and then now in the midst of these difficult times we have to find money to build a new school.” Asked who was ultimately responsible, Francis said “EFCL has been asked to conduct an investigation and they have assured that one is underway. I am adamant that somebody owes us money and I am adamant that somebody is going to pay us.”