Times Caribbean
Not even the Sun covers the Caribbean better
BBC Top News
CNN Top News
Antigua-Barbuda
St.Maarten/St.Martin
St.Vincent-Grenadines
November 22, 2019 in General News: 23-year-old St.Kitts Man fatally shot in head inside Bronx tobacco shop
January 21, 2020 in St.Kitts-Nevis: St Kitts and Nevis Keeps Up Sizzling Tourism Growth
January 21, 2020 in Antigua-Barbuda: Antigua PM promises to surpass St.Kitts as #1 Cruise Destination. "We Going To Toast St. Kitts" declares PM Gaston Browne
January 21, 2020 in Antigua-Barbuda: Antigua Government Issues Statement On The Termination of Minister Dean Jonas. Samantha Marshall Sworn-In As Agriculture Minister
January 21, 2020 in Antigua-Barbuda: Antigua Minister Of Agriculture Dean Jonas Fired And Removed From Cabinet With Immediate Effect
January 21, 2020 in OECS: ECCB hosts 4th Growth and Resilience Dialogue with Social Partners
Home » General News » New BHS to be Most Modern state-of-the-art High School facility in the Region
New BHS to be Most Modern state-of-the-art High School facility in the Region
Get our headlines on WHATSAPP: 1) Save +1 (869) 665-9125 to your contact list. 2) Send a WhatsApp message to that number so we can add you 3) Send your news, photos/videos to times.caribbean@gmail.com
Posted on July 30, 2017 in General News // 0 Comments
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Sports, Youth and Culture hard at work. Honorable Shawn Richards.
By Loshaun Dixon –
Basseterre, St. Kitts – The ideas for the new Basseterre High School facility put forward by the government will see the construction of a state-of-the-art and modern facility to educate almost 1,000 future students.
Minister of Education Shawn Richards said at a press conference last week that the government has estimated a cost of approximately $40million for the new school.
"After the concepts and designs have been submitted, that cost maybe adjusted upwards or downwards," he said. "The costing does include the various experts and everything associated with the project. It is a capital project and, with capital projects, you include all of the necessary costing, not just the cost of construction, but whatever else you would determine, there is expense for associated with the project."
Richards added that a committee of experts had been charged with the responsibility of identifying what the school would be comprised of.
"As the minister of education. Yes, I am involved in what we would want to see as the end product for the new Basseterre High School," he said. "There was a committee put in place to come up with the terms of reference. The terms of reference says to the contractor and designer, this is what we expect at the end of the day. These are the number of classrooms we're looking for and these are the number of spaces we are looking for."
He then gave some of the amenities put forward by the committee to be included in the school: "The committee determined that in terms of classroom spaces, [we needed] five rooms for mathematics, five rooms for English, five rooms for geography, four rooms for social studies, four rooms for history, two rooms for language labs, two for principals of business, two for pincipals of accounting and two rooms for art," he said. "Each room [needs to have] two doors on different sides of the classroom.
"[We need] six rooms for computer labs that can be partitioned with 20 PCs each. [We need] five rooms [for] Learning Support and an additional resource centre, an audio visual room, auditorium with 1,500 seating capacity and a theatre arts classroom with a backstage. [We need] two rooms for lockers for each student, two rooms for gym equipment and exercise areas and classroom teaching space, gazebos and one projector per department and [a] mounting projector in the roof of each classroom. Again, we say, if we're building a school, it should be start-of-the-art and technologically equipped."
Richards further noted that other than those areas mentioned for teaching, there are some other areas that have been identified, including an "administrative area for principal and deputy principal and administrative assistant, a reception area, a records room and a supply room. With [an] increased student population and staff, it may require full-time vice principals, year heads and guidance counsellors [who] must also be provided for."
A counselling centre with a waiting area, nurse quarters, library, media centre, security room, cafeteria, swimming pool, cricket pitch, football field and 400m track are all other facilities put forwad by the committee.
Richards, however, indicated that some of the items proposed may not be included in the actual design, due to budget restrictions.
"Ideally, that is what we would like to see, at the end of the day, [but] the cost will be looked at and, depending on what costs we are seeing, then a determination may be made to scale down in certain areas," he said. "For example, I mentioned a swimming pool; that may not be necessary at this particular point in time, and there are other costs [that] will come with a swimming pool. So even though it's included here when we look at the cost at the end of the day and we have said to the designers and to the contractors that we expect to see an itemized cost is, when you begin to say well, add in, take out, at least you have a very good idea as to what you expect the final cost to be."
Construction of the school could begin as early as later this year and could take up to two years to complete.
News Pictures
St Kitts and Nevis Keeps Up Sizzling Tourism Growth
Antigua PM promises to surpass St.Kitts as #1 Cruise Destination. "We Going To Toast St. Kitts" declares PM Gaston Browne
Antigua Government Issues Statement On The Termination of Minister Dean Jonas. Samantha Marshall Sworn-In As Agriculture Minister
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Vacation in the Beautiful Paradise of St.Kitts-Nevis
January 1, 2016 // 31 Comments
File Photo: Trudeau making sandcastle on one of his recent vacations by Times Caribbean Online Staff Writer, The very popular recently elected Prime Minister of Canada [...]
Top 20 Caribbean Islands where Women have the Biggest Bottoms
Carl Lewis raises doubts over Usain Bolt's record-setting performances
Copyright © 2020 | TIMES CARIBBEAN | Not even the Sun covers the Caribbean better