At the start of the school term last week, pub­licly fund­ed schools were still in need of re­pair, some more than oth­ers. Bil­lions have been spent by suc­ces­sive gov­ern­ments to get the school re­pair pro­gramme right, es­pe­cial­ly ahead of the re-start of school, but it re­mains an an­nu­al prob­lem.

Last week, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly said that not enough mon­ey was al­lo­cat­ed an­nu­al­ly to fix the prob­lem.

Guardian Me­dia In­ves­ti­ga­tions desk ex­am­ines the bud­get doc­u­ments to de­ter­mine how much the State has spent on schools over the past eight years and the amount still need­ed to keep them op­er­a­tional.

Joshua Seemu­n­gal Se­nior

Mul­ti­me­dia Jour­nal­ist

joshua.seemu­n­gal@guardian.co.tt

Over an eight-year pe­ri­od, be­tween fis­cal years 2016 and 2023, more than $2.3 bil­lion was al­lo­cat­ed by the Gov­ern­ment on projects to re­pair or con­struct pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools, ac­cord­ing to Guardian Me­dia’s re­search.

Ap­prox­i­mate­ly $815 mil­lion was spent un­der the In­fra­struc­ture De­vel­op­ment Fund (IDF) and more than $1.2 bil­lion un­der the Pub­lic Sec­tor In­vest­ment Pro­gramme (PSIP). In ad­di­tion, more than $300 mil­lion was spent un­der the State En­ter­pris­es In­vest­ment Pro­gramme (SEIP).

There­fore, on av­er­age, $287.5 mil­lion was spent on schools an­nu­al­ly.

There are 453 pri­ma­ry schools and 125 sec­ondary schools in the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem.

Based on the es­ti­mat­ed av­er­age of $287.5 mil­lion al­lo­cat­ed to school re­pairs and con­struc­tion, and on the num­ber of schools in the coun­try, each school in the coun­try should have re­ceived $3.5 mil­lion in re­pair and con­struc­tion fund­ing be­tween the 2016 and 2023 fis­cal years.

Among the projects com­plet­ed were the Hillview Sec­ondary School ($11.6 mil­lion), San Juan Boys and Girls School ($45.9 mil­lion), the Chatham Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School ($26.8 mil­lion), Bel­mont Boys’ RC ($3 mil­lion), St Au­gus­tine Girls’ High School ($49.4 mil­lion), Siparia Union Pres­by­ter­ian Pri­ma­ry School ($43.8 mil­lion), Holy Cross Col­lege ($43.8 mil­lion), Mal­abar Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School ($37.6 mil­lion), and Fan­ny Vil­lage Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School ($52.6 mil­lion).

Ex­ten­sive work, with un­con­firmed costs, was per­formed on San­ta Flo­ra Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School (90 per cent com­plete, with an es­ti­mat­ed project cost of $44.3 mil­lion) and Mara­bel­la An­gli­can Pri­ma­ry School (92 per cent com­plete, with an es­ti­mat­ed project cost of $38.7 mil­lion).

Work al­so be­gan on sev­er­al oth­er schools, which are de­scribed as be­ing in the ear­ly stages. The Na­tion­al Main­te­nance Train­ing and Se­cu­ri­ty Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (MTS) was hand­ed the port­fo­lio of the Ed­u­ca­tion Fa­cil­i­ties Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (EF­CL) in 2021.

Be­tween fis­cal 2016 and 2023, ap­prox­i­mate­ly $69.5 bil­lion was al­lo­cat­ed in the na­tion­al bud­get to the ed­u­ca­tion sec­tor. The amount spent on re­pair and con­struc­tion projects for pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools—un­der the men­tioned pro­grammes and funds—rep­re­sents around five per cent of the min­istry’s bud­get al­lo­ca­tion.

On av­er­age, for every $1 spent on ed­u­ca­tion, 33 cents have been spent on per­son­nel ex­pen­di­ture (wages, etc), one cent on school con­struc­tion, and two cents on re­fur­bish­ing schools.

Sec­ondary School Re­pair and Con­struc­tion: For every $1 spent on try­ing to fix sec­ondary schools, they spent at least 56 cents on con­struc­tion and 44 cents on re­fur­bish­ment.

* More than $923 mil­lion was spent on re­pair­ing or con­struct­ing sec­ondary schools.

* More than $519.6 mil­lion was spent on re­fur­bish­ing sec­ondary schools ( 56 per cent)

* More than $403.4 mil­lion was spent on con­struct­ing sec­ondary schools ( 44 per cent) Pri­ma­ry School Re­pair and Con­struc­tion: For every $1 spent on try­ing to fix pri­ma­ry schools, 55 cents were spent on re­fur­bish­ing and 45 cents on con­struc­tion.

* At least $1.1 bil­lion was spent on re­pair­ing or con­struct­ing pri­ma­ry schools. * More than $604.6 mil­lion was spent on re­fur­bish­ing pri­ma­ry schools (55 per cent) * More than $505 mil­lion was spent on pri­ma­ry school con­struc­tion (45 per cent) In 2016, un­der the SEIP, a de­tailed break­down of costs and com­ple­tion per­cent­ages for school con­struc­tion projects un­der the Ed­u­ca­tion Fa­cil­i­ties Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (EF­CL) was pro­vid­ed. Of 18 list­ed school projects, the costs of eight were re­vised up­wards at a cu­mu­la­tive in­crease of more than $460 mil­lion. 

EF­CL Pri­ma­ry School Projects un­der SEIP 2016:

* La Fil­lette RC PS - $17.5 mil­lion (es­ti­mate)

* Low­er Mor­vant GPS - $24.8 mil­lion (es­ti­mate)

* Mal­abar GPS - $35.5 mil­lion

* New Grant GPS - $23 mil­lion

* Paramin RC PS - $25.2 mil­lion; re­vised from $21.9 mil­lion

* Ro­mai Trace Govt PS - $36.7 mil­lion

* Re­form SDMS PS - $36.9 mil­lion

* Rousil­lac SDMS PS - $34.6 mil­lion

* Siparia Union Pres - $34.2 mil­lion

EF­CL Sec­ondary School Projects un­der SEIP 2016:

* Aranguez North Govt Sec­ondary - $193.1 mil­lion; re­vised from $130.4 mil­lion

* Barataria North Govt Sec­ondary - $209.5 mil­lion; re­vised from $149.3 mil­lion

* Cara­pichaima West Govt - $203.8 mil­lion; re­vised from $158.9 mil­lion

* Cou­va West Govt - $292.8 mil­lion; re­vised from $172.8 mil­lion

* Five Rivers Govt - $190.3 mil­lion; re­vised from $132.6 mil­lion

* Mt Hope - $174.7 mil­lion; re­vised from $144.7 mil­lion

* Par­vati Girls’ - $153.8 mil­lion; re­vised from $110.9 mil­lion

* Pleas­antville - $76.7 mil­lion; re­vised from $109 mil­lion

* Princes Town East - $179.5 mil­lion; re­vised from $140.6 mil­lion

The EF­CL

EF­CL was in­cor­po­rat­ed on March 11, 2005, as a whol­ly owned state en­ter­prise to man­age school projects as­signed by the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion (MOE). The school con­struc­tion pro­gramme was pri­mar­i­ly fund­ed un­der PSIP/IDF and the pro­ceeds of a bond is­sued by the Gov­ern­ment (GORTT) in 2009. The bond was ini­tial­ly for the con­struc­tion of ear­ly child­hood cen­tres, but in 2011, the bond­hold­ers ap­plied the fund­ing to oth­er schools un­der con­struc­tion.

Af­ter the SEIP 2016 re­port was pub­lished, an­oth­er re­port was not pub­lished un­til 2021, when the func­tions of the EF­CL were hand­ed over to MTS.

The ab­sence of pub­lished in­for­ma­tion on schools be­ing con­struct­ed by the EF­CL be­tween 2017 and 2020 co­in­cid­ed with al­le­ga­tions of cor­rup­tion and po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence with­in EF­CL.

The PNM Gov­ern­ment, tak­ing of­fice in 2015, ac­cused the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship coali­tion of leav­ing dozens of un­fin­ished schools be­hind.

Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert said that 118 school projects were not com­plet­ed. Im­bert said the Gov­ern­ment had a $2.8 bil­lion fi­nan­cial hole to com­plete the school re­pairs and con­struc­tion.

In Jan­u­ary 2016, it was re­port­ed that a ‘con­tract mill­house’ was dis­cov­ered at the com­pa­ny’s Mar­aval of­fice. It was said that po­ten­tial ev­i­dence of back­dat­ed ten­der doc­u­ments was dis­cov­ered.

In Au­gust 2016, as re­port­ed in the Trinidad Ex­press, then-at­tor­ney gen­er­al Faris Al-Rawi, up­on in­struc­tions from Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, called an emer­gency meet­ing with the di­rec­tors of EF­CL to dis­cuss fair play, hon­esty, and ques­tion­able deal­ings in the award­ing of con­tracts.

It was re­port­ed that the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the award of con­tracts to a promi­nent com­pa­ny for schools in Bar­rack­pore and New Grant were dis­cussed.

Lat­er that month, the com­pa­ny’s board fired five man­agers fol­low­ing a foren­sic au­dit. In June 2017, ahead of a sched­uled ap­pear­ance be­fore a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee, then EF­CL chair­man Arnold Pig­gott re­signed, cit­ing the pro­tec­tion of his rep­u­ta­tion and fam­i­ly name, as well as fam­i­ly com­mit­ments.

In De­cem­ber 2017, Pig­gott even­tu­al­ly ap­peared be­fore a JSC af­ter ini­tial­ly re­fus­ing. Pig­gott told the JSC that he re­signed be­cause of a cul­ture of cor­rup­tion and mis­man­age­ment. He al­so al­leged po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence.

He said that dur­ing his 17 months in of­fice, there were four ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties in the is­suance of con­tracts.

“The de­tails of a bid were caused to be record­ed on an EF­CL tem­plate. The quan­ti­ty sur­vey­or, I was told, was caused to be typ­ing the in­for­ma­tion in­to the com­put­er while the then ex­ec­u­tive man­ag­er was dic­tat­ing the in­for­ma­tion from that bid ... and that is gross­ly ir­reg­u­lar. We caused a PWC (Price­Wa­ter­house­C­oop­ers) in­ves­ti­ga­tion to be pre­pared, which showed clear breach­es in the ten­der rules,” he said. 

“We’re talk­ing about a bil­lion-dol­lar com­pa­ny where it’s clear, on the ba­sis of the in­for­ma­tion pre­sent­ed this morn­ing, the ten­der­ing process was com­pro­mised. The com­mit­tee is very con­cerned, and what has emerged is a pat­tern of malfea­sance in pub­lic of­fice,” for­mer in­de­pen­dent sen­a­tor David Small said in re­sponse.

MTS gets con­tract

In fis­cal 2021, the Min­istry of Fi­nance en­tered in­to a con­tract with MTS for the pro­vi­sion of project man­age­ment ser­vices for the com­ple­tion of con­struc­tion and out­fit­ting of 27 pri­or­i­ty schools. Sub­se­quent­ly, the num­ber of pri­or­i­ty schools was re­duced from 27 to 24.

The pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools in­clud­ed:

St Au­gus­tine Girls’ High School

San Juan Boys and Girls

Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry Schools

Chatham Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School

San­ta Flo­ra Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School

Siparia Union Pres­by­ter­ian Pri­ma­ry School

Holy Cross Col­lege

Mara­bel­la An­gli­can Pri­ma­ry School

Mal­abar Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School

Fan­ny Vil­lage Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School

Ari­ma Cen­tral Sec­ondary School

Barataria North Sec­ondary School

Low­er Mor­vant Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School

St Joseph Sec­ondary

Holy Name Con­vent

Pic­cadil­ly Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School

Ra­mai Trace SDMS Pri­ma­ry School

Mt Hope Sec­ondary School School

Schools still on the list

Two of the schools present in the 2016 EF­CL SEIP doc­u­ment were re­peat­ed in the 2023 SEIP MTS list.

1. In 2016, un­der EF­CL, the Barataria North Gov­ern­ment Sec­ondary School was list­ed as 63 per cent com­plet­ed at an ex­pect­ed cost of $209.5 mil­lion. $880,000 was list­ed as be­ing spent on the project in fis­cal 2016. In fis­cal 2024, the project was yet to be com­plet­ed. In fis­cal 2018, the school was list­ed as one of 46 sec­ondary schools to re­ceive works as part of a $20 mil­lion al­lo­ca­tion un­der the PSIP. In the 2021, MTS SEIP doc­u­ment, it was stat­ed that con­struc­tion on the project was set to be­gin in fis­cal 2021, with an es­ti­mat­ed fis­cal ex­pen­di­ture in 2021 of $166 mil­lion. The cost of the project was re­vised from its 2016 es­ti­mate of $209.5 mil­lion to $173.7 mil­lion. It was then re­vised up­wards in SEIP 2023 to $248 mil­lion—more than the orig­i­nal 2016 es­ti­mate.

The es­ti­mat­ed ex­pen­di­ture for fis­cal 2023 on the project was $130.1 mil­lion. Yet, in SEIP 2024 doc­u­ments, the MTS project was re­port­ed to be in its ‘ini­tial stage.’ The school has a stig­ma of vi­o­lence at­tached to it.

In Feb­ru­ary 2023, teach­ers from the school stayed away from class­es at Barataria North af­ter sev­er­al stu­dents were al­leged­ly con­front­ed and beat­en by a par­ent. In June 2024, a 15-year-old Barataria North Sec­ondary stu­dent was stabbed mul­ti­ple times by a fel­low stu­dent.

2. In the 2016 SEIP, un­der the EF­CL, Mt Hope Sec­ondary School was list­ed as be­ing 84.5 per cent com­plete. The project was ini­tial­ly es­ti­mat­ed to cost $144.7 mil­lion but was re­vised to $174.7 mil­lion. In fis­cal 2016, $15.66 mil­lion was paid to­wards its con­struc­tion.

Five years lat­er, in SEIP 2021, un­der MTS, the project was de­scribed as need­ing ‘sig­nif­i­cant struc­tur­al retro­fitting and re­me­di­al works.’ The project’s cost was in­creased from the $174.7 mil­lion es­ti­mate to $258.2 mil­lion.

The es­ti­mat­ed ex­pen­di­ture in fis­cal 2021 on the project was $246.6 mil­lion. It was stat­ed that con­struc­tion was to com­mence in fis­cal 2021. In SEIP 2023, the project cost was then re­vised down­wards to $219.5 mil­lion. There was an es­ti­mat­ed ex­pen­di­ture of $131.7 mil­lion for fis­cal 2023.

Ear­li­er this week, par­ents of stu­dents of Mt Hope Sec­ondary protest­ed about a lack of re­pairs to the school.

“Do we have to be a pres­tige school to get re­pairs? Be­cause I no­ticed St George’s on the news this morn­ing, their roof par­tial­ly col­lapsed, but our roof col­lapsed, and yet we are still open, our teach­ers are still teach­ing, and our kids are in dan­ger,” PTA co­or­di­na­tor Mar­i­lyn Mar­quis said. Mar­quis, who al­so at­tend­ed the school as a child, said noth­ing much has changed since then.

“I went to this school, and you know the on­ly thing that has changed in the 30-odd years since? The uni­form changed and the bath­room is still not work­ing,” she added.

EF­CL-re­lat­ed pri­ma­ry school projects

1. The La Fil­lette RC Pri­ma­ry School: Un­der the EF­CL, in SEIP 2016, was list­ed as 22 per cent com­plete.

$100,000 was paid to­wards the project in fis­cal 2016. In 2015, PP Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Tim Gopeesingh turned the sod for the new La Fil­lette Pri­ma­ry School with a sup­posed com­ple­tion date of East­er 2016.

Un­der the IDF, in 2016, an­oth­er $104,106 was al­lo­cat­ed to con­struc­tion. The school al­so re­ceived fund­ing for re­me­di­al works through the 2018 PSIP. In Jan­u­ary 2023, the school did not open for class­es be­cause of ro­dent in­fes­ta­tion prob­lems.

2. Low­er Mor­vant Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School: Un­der the EF­CL, in the 2016 SEIP, the school’s project had an es­ti­mate of $24.8 mil­lion. It was list­ed as 11 per cent com­plete, and $200,000 was spent on it un­der the SEIP in fis­cal 2016.

In SEIP 2023, the project cost was re­vised to $64.3 mil­lion. In fis­cal 2024, it re­mains in the de­vel­op­ment phase, ac­cord­ing to SEIP 2024 un­der MTS. Work ‘be­gan’ in fis­cal 2022.

* IDF 2016: $2.43 mil­lion spent on the school

* IDF 2018: $178,274 in con­struc­tion fund­ing

* PSIP 2017: One of eight schools to get $67.4 mil­lion in con­struc­tion fund­ing

* PSIP 2018: list­ed for re­me­di­al works; no cost giv­en $50.8 mil­lion in con­struc­tion fund­ing for fis­cal 2022 $36.6 mil­lion in fund­ing for fis­cal 2023 $47.8 mil­lion in fund­ing for fis­cal 2024

3. The Mal­abar Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School un­der the EF­CL in SEIP 2016 had a project cost of $35.5 mil­lion. It was list­ed as 33 per cent com­plete.

There was a fis­cal cost of $160,000 in fis­cal 2016. Eight years af­ter be­ing list­ed as 33 per cent com­plete, the school was list­ed as 99 per cent com­plete un­der SEIP 2023 and SEIP 2024.

* IDF 2016: $829,910

* IDF 2017: $57,000

* PSIP 2017: Roof­ing and plumb­ing works—one of 8 schools to share $67.4 mil­lion in con­struc­tion fund­ing 2017: list­ed as 50 per cent com­plete

* PSIP 2018: re­me­di­al works; no cost

* SEIP 2023: Project cost list­ed as $38.6 mil­lion

* $5.3 mil­lion in fund­ing in fis­cal 2022

4. The New Grant Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School in SEIP 2016 had a project cost of $23 mil­lion and was list­ed as 96 per cent com­plete. There was a fis­cal 2016 cost of $2.1 mil­lion. The new school was opened by the PP gov­ern­ment in Au­gust 2015.

* 2016: School con­struc­tion con­tract flagged by Gov­ern­ment un­der EF­CL

* IDF 2018: $466,476

* IDF 2020: $101,373

* IDF 2021: $106,867

* 2023: Part of a $600,000 set­tle­ment with con­tracts for two school projects

5. Paramin Ro­man Catholic Pri­ma­ry School in SEIP 2016 had a project cost of $25.2 mil­lion, re­vised from $21.9 mil­lion. It was list­ed as 99 per cent com­plete with a fis­cal 2016 cost of $3.7 mil­lion. The school was opened in 2015 by the PP gov­ern­ment.

* IDB 2016: $88,212

* Emer­gency re­pairs in fis­cal 2018; no cost giv­en

6. Ra­mai Trace Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School in SEIP 2016 had a project cost of $36.7 mil­lion. It was list­ed as 36 per cent com­plete, with a 2016 fis­cal spend of $6.39 mil­lion. By May 2019, the school was de­scribed as 90 per cent com­plete, but the new struc­ture was aban­doned. In De­cem­ber 2023, the school was opened at a quot­ed cost of $24 mil­lion.

* IDF 2016: $1.8 mil­lion in re­pairs

* PSIP 2017: One of eight schools to get a to­tal re­fur­bish­ment al­lo­ca­tion of $67.4 mil­lion

* IDF 2018 - $4.97 mil­lion in re­pairs SEIP 2022 - The project in­volves struc­tur­al and re­me­di­al works; the es­ti­mat­ed project cost of $39.7 mil­lion. The re­port says con­struc­tion to be­gin in fis­cal 2022.

* SEIP 2023 - $15.5 mil­lion for fis­cal 2023

7. Re­form SDMS Pri­ma­ry School in SEIP 2016 had an es­ti­mat­ed project cost of $36.9 mil­lion. The project was list­ed as 33 per cent com­plete, with a fis­cal 2016 cost of $6.42 mil­lion. The PP gov­ern­ment, that year, claimed the school was 85 per cent com­plete. De­spite con­struc­tion on the project start­ing in April 2024, as of De­cem­ber 2023, the school re­mained closed with the struc­ture aban­doned. No work has been done on the school since 2015.

8. Rousil­lac SDMS Pri­ma­ry School in SEIP 2016 had an es­ti­mat­ed project cost of $34.6 mil­lion. The project was list­ed as 51 per cent com­plete, with a fis­cal 2016 cost of $200,000. In ear­ly 2020, par­ents protest­ed, de­mand­ing the school con­struc­tion be com­plet­ed. $10 mil­lion was spent to com­plete works un­der IDF 2020.

9. Siparia Union Pres­by­ter­ian Pri­ma­ry in SEIP 2016 had an es­ti­mat­ed cost of $34.2 mil­lion. It was list­ed as 10 per cent com­plete, with a fis­cal 2016 cost of $200,000. The school was hand­ed over in Au­gust 2021. In SEIP 2023, un­der MTS, the es­ti­mat­ed cost of the project was list­ed as $43.4 mil­lion. Fis­cal 2022 ex­pen­di­ture was $11.6 mil­lion and the project was list­ed as 98% com­plete. The school was list­ed as 99 per cent com­plete in SEIP 2024.

* PSIP 2018 - emer­gency works; no cost

EF­CL-Re­lat­ed Sec­ondary School Projects

1. The Aranguez North Gov­ern­ment Sec­ondary School project, un­der SEIP 2016, was es­ti­mat­ed to be $193.1 mil­lion; re­vised from $130.4 mil­lion. It was list­ed as 97.9 per cent com­plete, with $13.68 mil­lion paid in fis­cal 2016. The school was opened in 2019 un­der for­mer ed­u­ca­tion min­is­ter An­tho­ny Gar­cia.

* One of 47 sec­ondary schools re­paired for a cu­mu­la­tive cost of $26.9 mil­lion

* One of 56 sec­ondary schools re­paired for a cu­mu­la­tive cost of $30 mil­lion

2. The Cara­pichaima West Gov­ern­ment project, un­der SEIP 2016, was val­ued at $203.8 mil­lion; re­vised from $158.9 mil­lion. The project was list­ed as 81.1 per cent com­plete, with a fis­cal 2016 cost $18.89 mil­lion. As of to­day, the school project re­mains in­com­plete.

* De­cem­ber 2022 - Stu­dents of forms one to three are forced to stay at home for the first week of the new term be­cause of elec­tri­cal is­sues. Fire in­spec­tor closed off the block.

* Jan­u­ary 2023 - School re­mains closed due to in­com­plete in­fra­struc­tur­al works.

* June 2024 - Teach­ers leave class­es be­cause of a mos­qui­to in­fes­ta­tion. There were re­ports of stag­nant wa­ter, where mos­qui­toes breed, was dis­cov­ered in­side the in­com­plete school con­struc­tion site.

3. The Cou­va West Gov­ern­ment, un­der SEIP 2016, was es­ti­mat­ed to be $292.8 mil­lion; re­vised from $172.8 mil­lion. It was list­ed as 99 per cent com­plete, with a fis­cal 2016 cost of $11.3 mil­lion.

* PSIP 2018 - One of 46 sec­ondary schools re­paired for a to­tal cost of $20 mil­lion

* Oc­to­ber 2019 - School closed for the new aca­d­e­m­ic term be­cause of in­fra­struc­tur­al is­sues in the new build­ing.

* Jan­u­ary 2020 - Par­ents of school stu­dents protest. They claim the school has had in­fra­struc­tur­al is­sues since 2013.

* Jan­u­ary 2020 - “The fact is un­usu­al for a school to be fraught with so many prob­lems, es­pe­cial­ly a school that is on­ly six years old” - An­tho­ny Gar­cia

* June 2020 - Part of the school ceil­ing col­laps­es

* March 2023 - Cou­va South MP Rudranath In­dars­ingh called for re­pairs to mouldy class­rooms, leak­ing ceil­ings, and oth­er in­fra­struc­tur­al is­sues. He de­scribed the school as large­ly un­in­hab­it­able.

4. The Five Rivers Gov­ern­ment Sec­ondary project, un­der SEIP 2016, was es­ti­mat­ed to cost $190.3 mil­lion; re­vised from $132.6 mil­lion. It was list­ed as 95.6 per cent com­plete with a fis­cal 2016 spend of $14.92 mil­lion. The new school opened in Oc­to­ber 2015.

* PSIP 2018 - One of 46 sec­ondary schools re­paired at a to­tal cu­mu­la­tive cost of $20 mil­lion

* PSIP 2024 - One of 56 sec­ondary schools re­paired at a to­tal cu­mu­la­tive cost of $30 mil­lion

5. The Par­vati Girls’ Sec­ondary project, un­der SEIP 2016, was pro­ject­ed to cost $153.8 mil­lion; re­vised from $110.9 mil­lion. It was list­ed as 60 per cent com­plete, with a fis­cal 2016 bill of $29.58 mil­lion. The school re­mains in­com­plete, to this day, with the new build­ing aban­doned. For­mer ed­u­ca­tion min­is­ter An­tho­ny Gar­cia said, while he was in of­fice, that the min­istry paid $85 mil­lion to­wards the project.

* In 2013, for­mer PM Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar turned the sod to be­gin con­struc­tion on the Pe­nal Ed­u­ca­tion Cen­tre, which was de­signed to house Par­vati Girls.

* In 2015, the school was re­port­ed to be at 90 per cent com­ple­tion by the PP gov­ern­ment.

6. The Princes Town East project, un­der SEIP 2016, was pro­ject­ed to cost $179.5 mil­lion; re­vised from $140.6 mil­lion. It was list­ed as 98 per cent com­plete, with a 2016 fis­cal cost of $18.89 mil­lion. The new school opened in Au­gust 2015.

* Ju­ly 2018 - New stu­dents are forced to sit in cor­ri­dors be­cause class­rooms had mal­func­tion­ing air con­di­tion­ers for two years. Some of the class­room ceil­ings are re­port­ed to have col­lapsed.