The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

EDUCATION Director Lionel Sands said yesterday despite the many challenges that plagued Uriah McPhee and Stephen Dillet Primary Schools last year, both institutions are expected to open “without any problems” on September 1.

Mr Sands said the Ministry of Education has spent more than $500,000 on upgrades to ensure the issues that caused closures at both of the schools last September do not resurface.

Overall, the Ministry of Education has spent $7.7 million on school repairs across the Bahamas – $500,000 in Grand Bahama, one million in the Family Islands and about $6.2 million in New Providence – and expects all public schools to open on time.

The Ministry of Education closed Uriah McPhee and Stephen Dillet in September 2013 because of several health issues and malfunctioning air conditioning units.

Last year, Bahamas Union of Teachers President Belinda Wilson claimed the schools had mould as well as rodent and termite infestation.

The ministry hired contractors to repair air conditioning systems at both schools and remove mould from Uriah McPhee Primary School.

This year, Mr Sands said both Uriah McPhee and Stephen Dillet have been given the all clear by the Department of Environmental Health and he expects no challenges.

“We know last year we had some challenges with this school (Stephen Dillet) with respect to the air conditioning and the quality of air and the Ministry of Education has done quite a bit to ensure the air conditioning system functions at its optimum and to ensure that the quality of the air is such that does not have a negative impact on the students or the teachers,” he told reporters after an inspection of the school.

“We do not expect this time around to have the challenges we had last year because we have done quite a bit with the Environmental Health who asked us to do certain things and we have completed all the things they have asked us to do and so we are sure that we are on the right track and this is the result.”

Coleman Andrews, first secretary in the Ministry of Education, said about $200,000 was spent on each school to repair the air conditioning systems and other minor problems.

He said: “A lot of work has been done here at Stephen Dillet. If you recall, last year this school was in the press a whole lot along with Uriah McPhee to ensure that we aren’t faced with the same challenges. We had a monthly maintenance programme put in place to address the air condition needs at the school. In addition we installed four new 15 ton air condition systems and so all of that costs about $137,000 just for that. We had additional works that were done like tiling and roof repair to the tune of about $81,000.

“All the problems we encountered last year at this institution as well as Uriah has been eliminated. We are upgrading the air conditioning at Uriah and installing two new 15 ton units plus some needed duct work to the tune of some $61,000, that with other minor repairs cost about $200,000.”

Ministry officials toured several schools in New Providence as part of their inspections ahead of the new school year.

Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald toured schools in Grand Bahama earlier this week.