by DONNA SEALY

SEVENTEEN PRIMARY SCHOOLS are getting some much needed repairs this summer holiday.

Head of the Ministry of Education's Project Implementation Unit, Bruce Alleyne, told the WEEKEND NATION yesterday that artisans were hard at work and some repairs had been completed. He added the majority of the others would be done before the new school year starts on September 10.

The repairs, which cost "a little over a million dollars", range from replacing mesh wire with windows, fixing ceilings, refurbishing and replacing floors, painting exterior walls, upgrading toilets and plumbing, and servicing windows and doors.

The schools are Eagle Hall, Eden Lodge Nursery, Wilkie Cumberbatch and Lawrence T. Gay in St Michael; Society in St John; Cuthbert Moore, South District and St George in St George; Good Shepherd in St James; Hilda Skeene, St Mark's and St Catherine's in St Philip; Ignatius Byer in St Lucy; St Lawrence, St Patrick's and St David's in Christ Church; and Welches in St Thomas.

Alleyne said at St Lawrence Primary, where the decorative blocks were being replaced by windows, work would not be finished in time for the opening of school, but classes would still be held.

He explained that mesh wire would be used temporarily until the windows were installed.

Contracts range from "$20-something thousand" to $65 000 and quotations were requested by the ministry, he said, adding the process was transparent with advertising in both daily newspapers.

Sixty-seven contractors purchased drawings and scope of works; there were 179 submissions and 33 contractors were hired.

The domestic summer programme is not a part of the Ministry's on-going Edutech programme.

Alleyne also disclosed the ministry was working "feverishly" to refurbish the former St Giles Senior School.

Expected to open this year, it will be the third school in Government's Early Childhood Expansion Programme, after St Boniface in St James and All Saints in St Peter. (DS)