Honourable Shawn Richards
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education in the new Team Unity Government says that the government is committed to building a new Basseterre High School.
Richards in an interview with Winn FM recently said that BHS students will not be sent back to the old campus on Victoria Road. He further assured that a new school will be built either at a new location, or at the old location if the problems there can be identified and the old BHS building torn down.
“We are therefore addressing our minds…to building a brand new high school. There are several issues at the old site. You have a number of buildings which were poorly maintained, you’ve had the septic issues, etc. If the report for example determines that the problem is one which is fixable, we’re still committed to building a brand new Basseterre High School whether it’s on the current site or a new site.”
Meantime speaking on the issue of the current shift system at the Washington Archibald High School, Richards said that that system would have to be revisited.
“I have also scheduled a meeting during the last week of this month with administrative officials from the Basseterre High School, from the Ministry of Education and from the Washington Archibald High School for us to start looking at the way forward for the next school term.”
They are a number of issues regards to the shift system, Minister Richards said.
“Ideally the shift system isn’t exactly the best, so we want to be able to look at things very early, before the next school term to see how some of the issues can be addressed, how they can be ironed out and to look at alternative arrangements in terms of housing the students from the Basseterre High School during the next school term.”