$2B Kwebanna School Faces Safety Questions

By Mark DaCosta- According to a press statement issued on September 7 by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament Sherod Duncan, the newly opened Kwebanna Secondary School and its dormitory in Region One are reportedly operating under unsafe, substandard conditions, with construction still incomplete, security lax, water and meals inadequate, supervision stretched dangerously thin and parents effectively trapped between risk to children and unaffordable river travel costs.

Duncan contends that a project financed by roughly G2.017 billion in public funds must be independently inspected and publicly certified as fit for occupancy before children remain on site, failing which the State should pay for their safe return home.

When six contracts totalling some G2.017 billion were signed in July 2023 for a modern secondary school at Kwebanna in the Barima-Waini region, it was heralded as a transformative investment: capacity for more than 600 students, a dormitory for 250, quarters for 25 teachers, and an end to the era of hinterland children ageing out in primary schools without secondary-trained teachers.