<<< The Government High School Condemned by structural engineers.
Nassau, Bahamas – Sir Claus Moser once wrote, “Education costs money, but then so does ignorance.” Had the former British statistician and former Vice Chancellor of Oxford University paid a visit to the Bahamas, he would beg the government of the Bahamas to stop the murder of young minds in our society.
Bahamas Press along with a delegation of structural engineers paid a visit to the Government High School after countless complaints from parents flooded our newsroom. We were handed a written invitation several weeks ago to “please come and help the cause” as the school is in no condition to be presented as a legitimate learning institution in the country.
Your BP and team accepted and what we saw was ‘HORRIFIABLY’ unbelievable. How could Carl ‘Undernournished’ Bethel leave this school in such condition, so callously, the school that carries the name of another institution attended by the finest in our nation? The shabby condition of Government High has left us in a state of shock and our picture proves our point. “Where are the caretakers of the school?” A team member asked as we entered the overgrown yard heaped with debris and weeds.
At the outset, we noticed the flagpole, which anchors the Bahamian flag tilt to the side as if the country had fallen several times to the ground. What awaited us was just that. We saw broken doors hitched with rusted locks, broken windows and broken chairs.
Gum droppings like black tar stained onto every square inch of the concrete covering the campus, enough to pave a quarter mile section of Tonique Darling Highway. We uncovered exposed wires hanging, enough to service the lines of the entire Yellow Elder Community, with these wires just waiting to electrocute an inquisitive mind.
<<< [LOOK AT THE GUM ON THE FLOOR OF THIS CLASSROOM]
We witnessed dark caged rooms “tunnels”, as one member described them, which appeared as if to lead a young student into some concentration camp. The halls were dark despite the beaming sunlight we were experiencing that day. No electrical lighting serviced the halls and all were broken. One parent said to us, “Imagine a child going into a room poorly lit like that, BP this is like a Jew walking into a camp of the Nazi.” The scene was unbearable and caused some of us to shake our heads in disgust at the state of education in the Bahamas. Anyone having witnessed the holocaust of the 1930s and 40s would today also be moved to tears at the state of the Government High School.
Bridges connecting the upper floor sections of the school are broken, some completely separated. Wooden beams were holding up some bridges, which is an accident just waiting to happen! Other connecting bridges at the school have exposed rusted steel rotten away by years of neglect.
The questions following our visit were endless as one engineer stated, “How is it the Bahamas Humane Society could keep animals in far better environments and here human beings cannot be kept under better conditions?”
BP wonders how is it men can sit around a Cabinet table and talk about giving 5,000 Chinese work permits, extending a dock and pump millions to build a terminal for 19 wealthy families and build miles of roadways with borrowed money and turn around to commit such naked abandonment and neglect towards the institutions of Education. Why have they chosen to slaughter and sacrifice the darlings of the nation on the altars of abandonment and neglect are beyond us!
Bahamas Press likens the state of the Government High School to a Holocaust now unfolding in Education in the Bahamas. NO CHILD CAN BE LEFT BEHIND.
Our inspectors have CONDEMNED the school building and by all means necessary we support any motion to have the school torn down not reopened this September.
We say to Carl ‘Undernourished’ Bethel, The Prime Minister had Good and Valid Reasons for firing your ‘Arse’. You have no Shame! SMT!!
WE NEED CHANGE!
Exposed bottom floor at the Government High School.
Garbage on the field near the field at Government High School.
Broken down bridges on the upper-floors of the Government High School. The steel is eroded and the bridge is being supported by wood.
Broken benches near the lunch stands at Government High.
Another bridge ready to collapse and fall on the children head at the Government High School.
More garbage stacked up on the Government High School Grounds.
