BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS (March 1st 2017) – Although speaking at several Team Unity Government (TUG)-sponsored town hall meetings, Minister of Education, Hon. Shawn K. Richards has yet to tell teachers, students and their parents when a new Basseterre High School (BHS) will be built.
The Team Unity government abandoned the Victoria Road and East Park Range campuses on taking office in February 2015 and promised since in opposition to build a new school.
“Hon Shawn Richards was part and parcel of the politics behind those at the Basseterre High School, trying to make very unreasonable demands, even after the Labour Government had gone to the length to have assessments done by local, regional and international organisations to assess the situation at the school,” said Hon. Nigel Carty, former Minister of Education and now a senator on the opposition benches in the National Assembly.
“Two years after they have taken office, the public is still unaware as to where the Basseterre High School will be built and if one will be built. The public is still unaware what is the serious reason for the Team Unity Government’s unwillingness to reoccupy the abandoned Basseterre High School,” said Mr. Carty.
He noted the public is still unaware of the justification for Team Unity Government to spend over EC$4 million to build two or three wooden structures to hold over 800 students at the temporary location opposite the Beach-Allen Primary School.
“The public is still unaware of any justification for monies being given to companies owned by members of the government for the construction of those wooden buildings which house our teachers and students for the last two years. The public is still unaware as to whether designs are being done, how much the design will cost, how long it will take and when construction is going to be built,” Sen. Carty told listeners to Issues on Freedom 106.5 FM.
“The minister of education Shawn Richards with his incompetence failed to indicate to the public at the series of Town Hall meetings, which provided an optimum forum or opportunity to indicate to the public where he and his ministry are with either the re-occupancy of the Basseterre High School or the plans for the construction of a new Basseterre High School that he promised will be built two years ago,” said Carty.
“The public is no wiser after all the braying in these town hall meetings. The public is still unaware of the plans for new BHS,” he said.
Carty reiterated that politics continues to drive the continued abandon of the Basseterre High School and called on the government to bring finality to that issue.
“Continue to play your politics. We know that the regional and international organisations have said that nothing is wrong with the Basseterre High School. And people have come to appreciate that even more so since the February 15thGeneral Election and the attempt by Minister of Education Hon. Eugene Hamilton and Junior Minister of Health, Sen. Hon. Wendy Phipps to hide the NIOSH Report,” said Carty, who asked the Government “to right the wrongs that you have perpetuated on the students, their parents and teachers.
“Make sure that that they have proper roofs over their heads and have the facilities to which they can learn to advance themselves and plan properly for their careers ahead,” he added.
The Government has brought in trailers to be used as extra class rooms and have stored them on a empty plot adjacent to the what Prime Minister Harris referred to as state-of-the-art temporary facility.
He recalled the Timothy Harris-led Team Unity Government playing politics with the BHS issue before it took office and subsequently rejecting all the reports from local scientists, the Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health agency (CARPHA), the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute ( CARIRI), also based in Trinidad and the Washington-based National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which recommended that the buildings could be inhabited after remedial works are completed.
Although the reports were rejected the Harris PLP/CCM/PAM Government still removed three buildings from the original site and is using them as classrooms and to house the principal’s office at Taylors.
Desk, chairs, tables and air condition units were also removed and installed at the temporary BHS facility as well, as he Verchild’s High School and other schools.
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