The education ministry’s new head office on St Vincent Street, Port-of-Spain will be handed over to the ministry by Udecott today, according to Education Minister Anthony Garcia. The 16-floor building has been undergoing outfitting since last year and is ready to be occupied.
Lights have been on in the building night and day and floors, furnished with desks, computers and other equipment. Three weeks ago, Garcia said it would be occupied in about three months.
Garcia also said he would meet this week with the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) Board, Education Facilities Ltd (EFCL) and parents of Rousillac Hindu School on the way forward for the new school and to ascertain why the originally-planned project went from two stories to three. He said no approval was given for this and he wants to get to the “bottom” of this.
Last Friday outside Parliament, parents of students attending Rousillac Hindu School, dressed in red, protested calling on Prime Minister Keith Rowley to deliver the school which has been in the making since the past PNM adminstration.
They said the school was largely destroyed by a bush fire in March 2003. Students were temporarily housed at the nearby SDMS temple until the undamaged part of the school was prepared by parents and students moved back there.
They said then education minister Hazel Manning assured a new school would be built but it was the People’s Partnership government which began construction in September 2013. It was to be completed in eight months. Since then students were housed at Rousillac community centre.
Parents said construction halted in September 2015—after general elections—with 70 per cent completion of the work. They were told in October 2015, the school would be ready for delivery by February 2016.