INVITATION for bids are currently open for the reconstruction of several sections of the North Ruimveldt Multilateral School that were gutted in June 2021 by a massive fire.
The fire, which occurred on June 19, 2021, devastated the school’s First to Fifth-Form classrooms, Science, Home Economics, and Information Technology laboratories, as well as the $3 million ‘smart’ classroom, the first to be launched in Guyana in 2015.
Following an intense stint of investigation, the Guyana Fire Service had found that the fire started in one of the classrooms on the third floor of the building, just above the school’s Home Economics Laboratory.
The then Fire Chief (ag), Kalamadeen Edoo, had told this newspaper that investigators had discovered that the fire started from a faulty duplex electrical point that had a circuit strip (power strip) attached to it.
Minister of Education Priya Manickchand, who had described the fire as an “unspeakable loss” last year, had noted the government’s commitment to rebuilding the school to ensure the continued commendable performance of its students.
North Ruimveldt Multilateral Secondary School is categorised as a “List A” school and is regarded as one of the better schools in Georgetown. At the time of the fire, the school had an enrolment of 512 students, with a complement of 39 teachers.
Even as the devastating fire struck the school just nine days before the 2021 Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) examinations, the Ministry of Education had put systems in place to ensure that the students had the opportunity to write the exams in the school’s auditorium.
This decision by the ministry came after consultation with parents and students of the school, who requested that the examination be done in the auditorium. The request was based on a dire need to have the students housed in one location, and not have them separated during any of their exams. Having the exam at the school would also allow the students to be in a familiar environment.
At the meeting, parents had expressed concern over the students being placed at other schools, which they noted could potentially cause anxiety and discomfort.
Sixty-Five students from the school were scheduled to take the 2021 examinations.
Speaking about the situation at the school since the full reopening of schools on April 25, 2022, Public Relations Manager at the Ministry of Education, Murtland Halley, told the Sunday Chronicle on Saturday that systems were put in place to house the students of Grades Seven to 11 in several other sections of the school which were retrofitted by the ministry.
“When schools reopened fully in April, the students were still using the school. There were sections of the school that were untouched by the fire so we retrofitted those sections to accommodate the children. The school and the ministry did not want to separate the students and have some housed in different buildings outside of the compound, and there was space within the school’s compound, so we made the necessary adjustments,” Haley said.
The reconstruction of the school is expected to provide a more stable arrangement for the students of Grades Seven to 11, as well as boost the resources at the school as the three laboratories that were destroyed in the fire are slated to be rebuilt.