GEORGETOWN Government to Support Students After Fire at Mae's School

GEORGETOWN – The Guyana government says it will “support fully” students affected by the fire on Wednesday at the privately-owned Mae’s school in Subryanville, a neighbourhood in Demerara-Mahaica.

“The government will support fully. As you know, we treat our private schools and our private school children the same way we do public schools with every intent and purpose,” said Education Minister, Priya Manickchand, adding that the Examinations Division of the Ministry was putting in place systems to accommodate students who would be writing examinations by the Barbados-based Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) and the Grade Six Assessment.

“We are just a couple of weeks away from Grade Six, making sure they are comfortable, they are seated, making sure the CXC children are also provided for so, as I speak, our Exams Division is currently looking at two places to try to make that determination but they’ll get our full support,” she added.

In a statement, Mae’s School, with approximately 1000 students across its Nursery, Primary, and Secondary levels said having experienced the “unfortunate event of a fire which completely destroyed its main structure” it is “currently putting urgent systems in place to ensure that the educational journey of its children continues uninterrupted”.

It said that the building previously housed the playground, primary and secondary students and that “to date, all students, teachers and staff members have been safely accounted for and this has been verified by the Guyana Fire Service”.

But the school management said in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, it “is quickly moving to provide temporary accommodations for all of the students that were displaced.

“Parents are advised to maintain contact with their child’s/childrens’ respective class teachers to stay abreast of all ongoing developments, as they become available,” the Mae School said, thanking the government “and all of the agencies that were on the ground, within minutes of this unfortunate event, to offer support.

“We also thank the many parents for their cooperation and trust in our systems that are being put in place to recover,” it added.

Fire Chief, Gregory Wickham said that there were no reported casualties as a result of the blaze that quickly swept through the decades-old wooden building.

The Ministry of Home Affairs said in a brief statement that “preliminary reports indicate that the blaze began before 8 a.m. (local time) and that “a parent at the scene recounted seeing a small fire inside one of the buildings. Despite efforts to extinguish it, the flames quickly spread, engulfing the entire school.” (CMC)