Schools across St. Vincent and the Grenadines are set to reopen today, September 1, despite a delay in a loan from Saudi Arabia intended to fund annual school repairs, according to Minister of Works Montgomery Daniel.
“All basic repairs have been completed and ‘harder’ maintenance will be done when the loan is disbursed,” Daniel said. “…all of the units have been looked at.” He made the remarks during an interview on NBC Radio on Wednesday, noting that the manager of BRAGSA, the state-owned general services agency, toured schools on the windward side of St. Vincent the previous day “to ensure that work is acceptable and that the school plants will be ready in time for Monday.”
“So despite the difficulties, I’m satisfied that work, in terms of the general requirements,… will be done,” said Daniel, who is also deputy prime minister and was acting as prime minister while Ralph Gonsalves is overseas.
“Of course, as I indicated that the most specific and the harder work will be done when the Saudi Arabia funding is available to us and to have all of his school plants fully upgraded at a later time this year,” he added.
Daniel acknowledged that some teachers and principals may have concerns but reassured that the essentials had been addressed. “I know that some teachers, some principals, may have some concern here or there, but the general cupboards and the paintings and the cleanliness and so on, all of that … have been taken care of. The electricals — those immediate things, they will have been looked at and the plants will be ready for Monday, September the first 2025.”
The works minister said that the Ministry of Finance had secured a Saudi Arabian loan for school repairs, but the funds will not be available until September. “But in the budget itself, there was an allocation of $2 million of local funding, to which every year we do repairs to school plans averaging around $4, $5 million,” he said.
Daniel added that Cabinet later allocated a further EC$2 million, which BRAGSA used to carry out repairs. “However, all of that outstanding work that was identified earlier on this week, which is to be funded by the Saudi Arabia loan, … will still be done once the funds come into operation,” he said.
“And so, even after school is reopened, BRAGSA still has that contract to do work…” the minister concluded.
