CHARLESTOWN, Nevis — The progress and quality of work on the construction of the Technical Wing at the Gingerland Secondary School has received high marks from Hon. Troy Liburd, Junior Minister of Education in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA).
“I was very pleased to hear that we can expect the building to be somewhere close to completion by the commencement of the new school year,” said Hon. Liburd. “Our students who attend Gingerland Secondary School can look forward to sometime in the near future or sometime in the next upcoming school year to start inhabiting and using this building.
“I know that all of the things that are going to happen here in this building when it’s complete they are only going to be for the benefit of our students and for the benefit of the island of Nevis,” said Liburd. “I am very, very pleased with the progress. I am pleased with the workmanship and the level of work that I have seen. The level of work that I have seen is top quality. I must say that I am very, very happy about what I have seen here.”
Kevin Barrett, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education; Hon. Troy Liburd, Junior Minister of Education in the Nevis Island Administration take a first-hand look at construction of the state-of-the-art Technical Wing at the Gingerland Secondary School.Also on the tour were Kevin Barrett, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education in the NIA; Dorson Ottley, TVET Officer in the Department of Education on Nevis, and Lester Blackett Project Manager.
Meanwhile, Oswald Wilfred, Construction Manager for Lefco Equipment Rental and Construction Company, contractor for the project acknowledged that construction was moving along well and gave an update on the status.
“So far in relation to progress, I could say that we are progressing fairly well,” said Wilfred. “We hope to increase the progress as we move along to the finishing stages of the project which is happening soon, probably in February.
“We definitely feel that we should be able to bring in the project at the recommended time probably a little pass it but according to construction you normally have certain difficulties that you have to encounter,” said Wilfred.
Darius Comberbatch, Engineer for FDL Consult Inc. in St. Lucia, consultants for the project noted that their main responsibility is to supervise the contractor’s construction work. He explained that according to the plan, progress at this stage is around 60 percent. However, they had fallen just short of that target.
“We are at around 56 percent, which is around 4 percent light,” said Comberbatch. “We believe with the contractors executing the works and continued progress we should have the project completed before the start of the next school year which will be to everyone’s benefit.”
The project is part of the US $8 million St. Kitts and Nevis Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Enhancement Project, an initiative of the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis funded by the Caribbean Development Bank, the Federal Government and the NIA. It is being executed by the TVET Secretariat in the Ministry of Education in St. Kitts.
