Independent MP Marlene Hassan Nahon has said that, following Government’s latest statement regarding the “inevitable delay” to the new Notre Dame school, a delay which she says is “caused purely out of a self-imposed unrealistic deadline”, parents and students deserve to be furnished with the following assurances:

1. Assurances and guarantees must be provided by Government to the general public that sufficient health and safety concerns have been addressed given the proximity of the construction site to the children and staff 

2. In view of the amount of noise and dust pollution that students and teachers are likely to endure during the start of the academic year, Government must provide details of how the effects of the aforementioned will be mitigated 

3. Government needs to provide details of its plan to ensure the safe and fluid drop off and pick up of pupils 


Ms Hassan Nahon continued: “Also, considering this last minute statement days before the school term is due to start, would Government not be wise to learn lessons from this “education revolution episode” and embark upon a thorough contingency plan moving forward so that this does not happen again at the eleventh hour with the other schools rushing to be built?

“Furthermore, this self-imposed deadline, something which this Government once criticised Sir Peter Caruana’s GSD Government for, when the new airport was being built to a tight deadline, surely comes at a price. Can Government confirm what the accelerated costs for the completion of works have been to date, and what added accelerated costs the Gibraltarian taxpayer will have to fork out for, by the time of the new projected completion date?

“It is regretful that this kind of improvisation is what we can expect for all projected investments in education, putting the quality of our system at risk only to tick boxes of manifesto commitments. Government should account to the people of Gibraltar for its lack of planning and start delivering a sensible, well thought out education policy that focuses more on the needs of the stakeholders and less on costly, badly planned and poorly executed capital projects.”

{fcomment}