The Ministry of Works will no longer be in charge of public school repairs and instead a separate body of resources will be formed specifically for the Ministry of Education, said Minister of Education Jeffrey Lloyd.
"One of the things that has happened in the past is that most of the contracts for school repairs or even school construction was done through the Ministry of Works," said Lloyd yesterday, following a tour of several schools in the western area of New Providence.
"We feel that, that produces a little bit of a delay in getting things done in a manner which is proficient.
"We believe that there needs to be a cohort of individuals, professionals, whether construction workers, architects, quantity surveyors, that are attached to the Ministry of Education.
"We are aggressively pursuing that objective.
"We expect that to be finalized by this week so that Mr. [Coleman] Andrews (deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education with responsibility for physical planning) and his team can be well on the way with the scope of work that has been identified throughout the system and that, that work can be done, and be done immediately.
"I have come into a ministry that is already a couple of weeks, if not months, behind in that exercise, so you know, we are already playing a catch up game and that's something we can't afford.
"This summer is the hurricane season, the rainy season, and so all of the challenges that already come with the summertime we don't need because there is a delay in getting things done."
Lloyd was sworn in as a minister last week.

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