GUYANA-Fire destroys private schools.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC—The Guyana government says it will “fully” support students affected by the fire on Wednesday at the privately owned Mae’s schools in Subryanville, a neighborhood 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, and we are making sure they are comfortable and seated, and 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, which has approximately 1000 students across its Nursery, Primary, and Secondary levels, said that having experienced the “unfortunate event of a fire which 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 and primary and secondary students and that “to date, all students, teachers, and staff members have been safely accounted for, and the Guyana Fire Service has verified this.”

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

“Parents are advised to maintain contact with their child’s/children’s 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 in the blaze that quickly swept through the decades-old wooden building.

In a brief statement, the Ministry of Home Affairs said that “preliminary reports indicate that the blaze began before 8:00 am (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.”