US$6.6M Good Hope Secondary School near completion – Education Minister

Apr 28, 2023 News

Kaieteur News – Five years later and two contracts valued at US$6.6 million (GYD$1.3B) Good Hope Secondary School, East Coast Demerara (ECD) is near completion.

This was announced by Minister of Education Priya Manickchand on Wednesday during the launch of the Literacy and Robotics Programme at the Enterprise Primary School, ECD.

Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand (DPI photo)

“We will close this primary top shortly. So, all of the children currently in this primary top will go to discreet high schools, a high school by themselves. We’re going to be able to do that because the Good Hope Secondary is going to be completed shortly. The school started many years ago. As you know the previous government was unable to finish it,” she told the parents gathered,” the minister was quoted as saying by the Department of Public Information (DPI).

Upon the school’s completion of the Good Hope Secondary School, some 479 students will be placed there. This, the minister had said, will allow her ministry to close the Paradise, Enterprise and the Enmore Primary Top schools. Further, the minister said the Good Hope Secondary will also help in reducing overcrowding at the Cummings Lodge, Bladen Hall, Golden Grove and the Plaisance Secondary Schools.

In December 2022, the Education Ministry inked a US$2,607,879 engineering, procurement and construction/turnkey contract for the completion of the Good Hope Secondary School with DEEN+ Partners.

Notably, the project falls under the Secondary Education Improvement Project and is being funded by the World Bank.

The original contract to construct the secondary school was awarded in 2018 to B.K. International for US$4,082,506 ($840M). Work commenced on October 15, 2018, with the original completion date being January 14, 2020.

However, the firm was unable to deliver despite benefiting from four extensions given on March 10, 2020, May 18, 2020, June 15, 2020, and August 17, 2020 respectively. B.K. International’s contract was terminated on May 25, 2021.

The Government of Guyana had indicated that it will be taking legal actions against B.K.

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East Coast Demerara (ECD), Good Hope Secondary School, Literacy and Robotics Programme, Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand

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