Education Minister Doctor Mahendra Reddy stresses that proper building standards are being implemented as they reconstruct the schools damaged after Cyclone Winston and there are no short cuts as no one is running around with hammers and nails to fix schools.
Doctor Reddy has made this stand clear following concerns raised by SODELPA that there is slow progress in rebuilding the damaged schools.
The Leader of the Opposition, Ro Teimumu Kepa says a total of 19 schools were visited in Tailevu and Ra from the 11th to 18th of October which were in a deplorable state.
Ro Teimumu says only Dobuilevu Muslim Primary School had a building contractor from Nadi that had just arrived on the day of the visit and had begun to remove the roofs of the school buildings.
She says all the other 18 schools were awaiting materials and supplies although full assessments and costings had been undertaken.
Ro Teimumu also says that there were visible eroded tents and the temporary repairs to roofs to enable classes to continue.
She says that these were provided by the local communities and NGOs.
Ro Teimumu has also called on the Minister for Education to immediately carry out an OHS compliance assessment on all the schools in the Red Zone areas and take appropriate measures to ensure that all those schools are OHS compliant by the beginning of term one in 2017.
Meanwhile Doctor Reddy says reconstruction work is continuing and Ro Teimumu is only mentioning schools where work is yet to start.
Doctor Reddy highlights that they have completed some schools that were destroyed by Cyclone Winston.
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