A fire of yet unknown origins completely gutted the Christ Church Secondary School situated at Camp and Middle Streets, a short distance away from the Prime Minister’s Office in the heart of the capital city, Georgetown.
One week ago a fire that started in the lab at the same School was quickly extinguished, and an inspection certificate presented to the Ministry of Education recently gave the premises a clean bill of health from electrical fault.
Today’s sudden turn of events means that over five hundred students and teachers are out of accommodations and an environment conducive to learning. The fire comes at a time when school populations are already bursting at the seams and adequate space in the city is scarce.
Additionally, when the smoke lifts and the debris cleared there are certainly going to be a lot of questions needing answers, as to for instance, the response time of the Guyana Fire Service (GFS). Just a week ago Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn told fire officers gathered in the compound of the burnt-out Brickdam Police Station that their firefighting posture must change. “The posture must change where we fighting fires and we rescuing people properly”, Benn told those gathered.
The Ministry of Education in a notice on its Facebook page states there would be no school tomorrow, January 13, 2022. Additionally, Teachers and ancillary staff are asked to attend a meeting in the auditorium at the National Center for Education Resource Development in Kingston.
