Tendering for school repairs to begin as new academic year nears
Government contracts for repair work to two public secondary schools will be open for tender in the next coming days and weeks, respectively.
Education Minister Myron Walwyn said the tendering is for works to Bregado Flax Educational Centre in Virgin Gorda and the L-shaped building at Elmore Stoutt High School (ESHS) in Road Town, Tortola.
The government will open tendering for ESHS within a week and Walwyn said a significant amount of preparatory work has already gone into the facility.
Speaking in parliament last week, Walwyn further said: “I am told that the Bregado Flax portion [of work] that the government is responsible for will go out for tender in a month.”
The other portion of works to be done to the Virgin Gorda-based school is to be carried out by Flow and Unite BVI — the two private entities with whom the government has partnered.
Both Bregado Flax and ESHS are scheduled to open within the first term of the next academic year, which begins in September.
For the duration of the last school year, the two educational facilities have been operating out of makeshift structures.
They and several other local educational facilities sustained severe damage during the 2017 hurricanes and are also undergoing repairs.
Primary school facilities such as Leonora Delville and Ivan Dawson primary are among those schools which will be ready for the start of the next school year, Walwyn confirmed.
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Why did Myron wait a full year before even beginning the process of repair? As the Minister of Education this should have been his top priority 12 months ago.
…As Minister of Education he cannot simply write checks, he is not the Minister of Finance. It’s obvious what’s happening here lately as it relates to Mr. Walwyn but people acting blind. I don’t know what he has done to some people but the plot is thickening for him.
you talking p—-s how he can beg for carnival money Education is a country success.
The plot should end here. The character had a chance to raise our education standards by investing more money in our struggling schools before the storm but he opted instead to support the $7.2mill payout to BVI Air. The character had a chance to rebuild or fortify our schools before the storm but he supported a $50miil in hidden cost overruns in the pier project. The character had the chance to rebuild our schools after the storms but he failed to even develop a plan to do so.
Tragic ending.
Do you live under rock or you are one of them playing deaf? Myron has been the only government Minister giving updates regularly since the hurricane and every time he gives information on those two schools that the money for those schools have to come from the 65 million dollar loan. We just like to listen to ignorance from a few loud mouths rather than listening to the proper info.
wow one whole year to do this, wallwin has failed
Its people like you who need not be citizens or residents of this country. No love for country at all. Just look for faults to get at personalities. Rise up out of that nonsense! This behavior is soo 1960s. Liberate your mind and stop the bull. Walwyn failed with all this man has done to lift up the education system?
Look at state of the schools after a whole year, but you probably can’t since your head is so far up his ****
The entire government has failed, not just Walwyn!
The earliest these schools can open and not even fully, would be the January term. This is a lesson to us that we need to save for rainy days and stop squandering on nonsense. Imagine we just need a few million dollars to do some repairs and we have to sit on our asses at the mercy of a bank. All the talk we had of independence and not needing anyone and look at us. Do we have any shame? I really hope they get it sorted out quickly because the kids deserve better. I think the Premier should have released an emergency $5mil to the Ministry of Education so they could at least get some stuff rolling and not waiting entirely on the bank.
Imagine if we hadn’t given away $7.2m to that airline. And didn’t the airport people tell us they spent $500,000 more on the airport for that airline? Is the Governor auditing the airport operations?
Imagine if we had allowed our ministers push through the runway extension. At one point they wanted us to spend $450,000,000 on that. That’s 450 million large folks! Didn’t they spend $500,000 on consultants for that project?
Where has all our money gone and why?
Why doesn’t Orlando release the audit for the past several years?
We all know why the audits of government expenditure won’t be released ! – there will continue to be excuses,delays, smoke screens because the “No Direction Party” knows it will be exposed as the incompetent, weak, selfish party that it is….Nepotism continues to be rife – why do you think they resist transparency, accountability and proper due diligence – Air Miles Dr Smith doesn’t care as he’s passed on the mantle to Myron – and if we thought Dr Smith was out of his depth…. Walryn doesn’t even have arm bands to float…things are going to get a whole lot worse with these **** in charge…
*Suck Teeth*
The amount of volunteers that came to this Island looking to clean up the school and debris that got TURNED BACK because of the red eyed minister.
Now they out looking tenders that are gonna be nothing more than public ruses because they already know who they got slated to get this “eat”.
Y’all playing with people’s lives and our kids education, messon. That place could have been cleaned and prepped ready for construction work that wouldn’t have added to the overall project cost, but that would have eaten into the kickback and over spending that already slated for this one too, eh???
I am not sure that is fair. There is no money so how is the man meant to make such a thing happen. This is all the Development Board moving stuff now. It is good for sure, long over due certainly, but whatever you think of Myron this is certainly not of his making!
The VI is a small, resource poor chain of 36 islands (59 square miles), islets and rocks. Human capital is its most important and precious resource; it must adequately invest in human capital to get the best result and outcome. Education is a key investment tool that needs adequate funding, planning, programming, facilities,teachers/instructors/professors……..etc; it is the elevator that will take it to the top.
Moreover, hurricanes Irma and Maria decimated many schools, including Elmore Stoutt High School(ESHS). However, the damages resulting from the hurricanes present an opportunity to do things differently, thinking outside the proverbial box. My wild idea is to raze, redesign, and reconstruct ESHS. This provides the opportunity for a more efficient design, more effective use, more efficient and effective land use, offer more programmes, construct with a dual purpose, ie, use as School/training institute and a rideout shelter………etc.
“it is the elevator that will take it to the top.” We need an architect (leader) to fund, plan, design, construct, maintain, repair and sustain the elevator. Who is up to the task? Is it Fahie, Walwyn, Fraser, Christopher, Penn, Farara, Dawson, O’Neal, Turnbull, Vanterpool, Smith, Pickering……etc?
There is no such thing as an “elevator that will take it to the top”. Education is the key to the door. Hard work is the energy to climb the stairs.
Indeed, bold, wild and out of the box idea. Nonetheless, repair in like kind is moving bud speed ahead.
Let’s lead like eagles, not careen off the cliff like buffaloes.
Smart politician but the people can see right through you.
Did you provide the money to carry out the work? How else was he to begin the tendering?
That million dollar wall money could have gone a long way. Oh how so much money was squandered when it is now needed. Poor planning; lack vision; sad state of affair. We are moving from great to good.
I shudder to think how much these repairs are going to cost if a wall costs $1m – no wonder the banks aren’t lending! zero due diligence, zero transparency,all secret deals and nepotism but we know this cannot continue and we must ensue it doesn’t – I wouldn’t trust one minister in the NDP apart from M but he seems to have been sucked into the polluted system which is sad really…I hoped things would change but they haven’t…
The loan is approved so the bank is lending. The BVI has never defaulted on its borrowing.
The money wasted on the brandy wine bay beach could’ve come in handy here now
will this one go to the company with claws for votes??
who crab?
I thought the UK was not allowing these people to handle any recovery money.
Time will tell.
The whole Elmore Stoutt High School campus should be torn down and redesigned as a modern high school and junior high campus. The current campus has a number of buildings that was just fling together; there is no smooth flow around the campus. Redesigning the campus with a dual purpose, ie, normal school operations and as a fallout shelter as suggested by another blogger (E. Leonard) is sound. Several years ago a design with a tun ah glass was floated.
However, this was not a strong option; the BVI lies in a hurricane zone and it is not if it is going to get hit again but when. Glass, unless it is expensive impact glass, is highly vulnerable to hurricane force winds. Thpically, the weak points on buildings are roofs, openings (windows, doors), garage doors, and glass, especially sliding glass doors.
Yes, it is valid question to ask where will the money come from. Well, projects will have to be prioritized. The territory is in a recovery mode and will have to borrow large sums with a long term pay back. It must seize the time and recovery opportunity.
Build eshs the right way this time.