Gumbs: School assessment will reveal full cost of public school repairs

GREAT BAY--Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Melissa Gumbs says Government is moving forward with a comprehensive structural assessment of the country’s public schools that will establish the condition of the buildings, determine the cost of bringing them up to standard and provide a clearer picture of what should be budgeted for structural maintenance in the years ahead.

Gumbs provided the update while discussing the condition and maintenance of public schools, an issue that also featured during deliberations on the 2027 Country Budget.

The Minister said ECYS is currently completing the tender process for the structural assessment of the public schools. Once completed, the assessment is expected to provide Government with a detailed and costed overview of what is required to fully repair the schools.

“We are currently finishing off the tender for the assessment, the structural assessment of the public schools,” Gumbs said. “What that is going to lead to is that we will get a costed-out reality of what it will take to fully repair all the public schools and bring them up to par.”

She said the exercise is not intended to address only immediate repairs. The information will also be used to determine what Government needs to allocate in future budgets to properly handle structural maintenance on an ongoing basis.

The objective is to move away from dealing with problems only after they arise and instead establish a clearer understanding of the condition of the school buildings and the financial resources required to maintain them.

Gumbs acknowledged that some companies had experienced difficulty locating tender documents during the process, but said many have since been able to access the necessary information. She encouraged qualified companies to pay close attention when subsequent tenders are published.

At the same time, the Minister made clear that ECYS does not intend to divide future school maintenance and cleaning contracts into numerous small packages simply to spread the work among a larger number of contractors.

She said the Ministry’s priority will be the quality and consistency of the work delivered across the school system.

Gumbs pointed to experiences with other Government contracts where work was divided among multiple companies, resulting in different approaches and standards depending on the contractor responsible for a particular area.

“We are not breaking up the maintenance,” Gumbs said, explaining that dividing work into many small sections can create situations where each contractor handles its assignment differently.

She said that approach is not one she intends to apply to public school maintenance, particularly when the health and safety of teachers and students are involved.

“For us, it is more about quality. We’re not going to take any chances with children and with teachers’ health,” Gumbs said.

The Minister said companies with the capacity to properly carry out the work will be welcome to participate when tenders for school cleaning and maintenance are issued.

“If you have a company that can sustain that type of work, you’re welcome to bid,” she said.

Gumbs said ECYS is moving away from what she described as the longstanding practice of dividing Government work into as many small contracts as possible when doing so does not necessarily produce the best outcome for the people using the facilities.

She said the primary consideration must be whether the arrangement delivers reliable and consistent service to the schools.

The upcoming structural assessment is expected to give ECYS a stronger basis for planning both major repairs and recurring maintenance. By attaching actual costs to the condition of each school, Government will be better positioned to determine how much funding is required and how that funding should be incorporated into future budgets.

Gumbs said the focus is ultimately on ensuring that public school facilities are maintained to an appropriate standard and that decisions concerning maintenance contracts are driven by the needs of the schools, teachers and students rather than by how many individual contracts can be awarded.

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