NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (July 30, 2020) — The Nevis Island Administration’s (NIA) Ministry of Education has started remedial work on the island’s public primary and secondary schools to ensure they are compliant with COVID-19 regulations when they re-open in September.

Hon. Mark Brantley, Premier of Nevis, made the announcement at his monthly press conference on July 30, 2020.

He did however note that the NIA, like governments the world over, has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic with respect to its ability to earn revenue over the past few months.

“Our revenue is drastically reduced so our capacity to undertake certain repairs is affected and negatively impacted,” he said.

Mr. Brantley further explained that the focus has been on areas of compliance, where the COVID-19 regulations are concerned, such as sanitisation and physical distancing in the classrooms.

“We would have liked to have done more. The only major work we did was at the Charlestown Primary School during the COVID-19 lock down period so we had to work within tight time parameters.

“The budget that had been presented to Cabinet to do the usual renovations was, I think, over $2million. We did not have the capacity to do that this year and so we have shrunk that to deal with things like the bathrooms and critical areas at the various schools that we are seeking to address.

“So we’re doing a number of small projects at the schools instead of the large projects like replacing roofs etcetera that we’ve done in the past,” he pointed out.