BASSETERRE, St. kitts - IN keeping with its campaign promise to construct a new Basseterre High School at the old Victoria Road Campus, the new St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) government is maintaining that position and could begin work very soon.
The position was confirmed in a post Cabinet release which indicated: “The Cabinet reiterated its decision that the Basseterre High School will be renovated and reconstructed on the original historical site.”
At a press conference earlier this year, candidates had reiterated the party’s position that it would construct the Basseterre High School on the old Campus.
Since losing the election in 2015, the SKNLP has been campaigning on not constructing the school on the Basseterre Aquifa, which was the location that the then Dr. Timothy Harris-led Team Unity coalition selected for its construction.
But that selection did not sit well with many people and those within the Labour Party, citing the threat of contamination of the water supply.
Dr. Drew, during the SKNLP’s press conference prior to the elections, noted that the party “always followed science”.
“We had a number of regional and international scientific bodies that would have come to St. Kitts and would have studied the situation at the Basseterre High School,” noted Dr. Drew.
At the time, he stressed that nothing was wrong with it and lashed out at the former government over the state of the location, describing it as being infested with rodents.
Dr. Geoffrey Hanley, Minister of Education, who was the SKNLP’s focal point man on education, related matters that supported the same position, emphasizing that the Basseterre High School would remain on the old Campus.
The Parliamentary Representative for Constituency One has always been against the construction of the institution on the Aquifa,
“Nothing is wrong with the old site and, as we have said in the past, that any construction of the new Basseterre High School must be done at the old site. And I give the assurance to the Federation that the building of the new Basseterre High School will be a priority under a Labour-led administration. Not only will the Basseterre High School be a priority, but we will now have to make Joshua Obediah Primary School in Mollineaux a priority having been burnt down,” said Hanley.
The Mollineaux-based institution was damaged by fire earlier this year and students have been housed at a nearby facility until work is completed on a new facility.
But Dr. Hanley is not limiting work on those two institutions. At the time of his speech at the press conference, he lamented that a number of institutions, including those at the high school level, were in need of remedial work and that would be a focus for him.
Meanwhile, no official word has been forthcoming on where the work is at when it comes to the proposed site in Ponds Pasture. Shortly before the elections, the fledgling administration had begun clearing of the location for work to start.
SKNVibes had asked Dr. Hanley about work undergoing at the time and he assured that no facility would be built at the location.
The Government did not give any indication of when construction of the institution or when work on the location would begin.
