Mrs. Thedica Commissiong-Jones, Principal of the Kingstown Government School (KGS), aka Stoney Ground Primary School, is elated that her staff and students will be in virtually new conditions when the 2020/21 school year begins.
The ‘new conditions’ come, thanks to a $2.9 million project financed by the World Bank, under the Regional Disaster Vulnerability Reduction Programme.
The KGS is among a number of schools that are designated Emergency Shelters, but following an annual inspection around 2016, engineers assessed that the roof and other facilities were in dire need of repair, and as such the School was not suitable to serve as an Emergency Shelter.
The School ‘makeover’ was included in a broader assistance response that also provided for refurbishment to a number of bridges and river defence works intending to make this country safer.
The school refurbishment project began on July 15, 2019 and was expected to be completed within 12 months.
However, delays in the arrival of roofing materials occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic held back the project for close to two months.
The refurbishment of the school was undertaken in two phases. Phase One saw the completion of the Senior Block and new toilet facilities, while Phase Two, which includes a cafeteria, store room, counselling room and Junior Block, should be realized in another two weeks, even as electrical fittings, painting and paving of the court (yard) is now nearing completion.
This project was undertaken by Franco Williams Engineering Services under the supervision of the Ministry of Economic Planning, Sustainable Development, Industry, Information and Labour.