News
HALF A MILLION TO BE SPENT ON GRAND BAHAMA SCHOOLS
FREEPORT, G.B. – August 16, 2013 — Education Minister the Hon. Jerome Fitzgerald said Friday, August 16, that he is pleased with the renovations being carried out to schools on Grand Bahama and that he expects a very smooth opening for government operated schools on the island.
Mr. Fitzgerald, accompanied by the Minister for Grand Bahama, the Hon. Dr. Michael Darville, toured many of the schools on Grand Bahama. He was also accompanied by senior officials from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, and staff from the Ministry of Works.
The Education boss agreed that having a Minister in Grand Bahama like Mr. Darville, who has a degree in engineering, is helpful in the oversight of the repairs.
He admitted that during the tour they discovered “some issues, but we are going to get those addressed. But other than that all the other repairs are moving quite smoothly and we do not see that as an issue for us opening up and we are very pleased with the quality of work and the way the works are going.”
The Minister’s comments came after completing the tour of West Grand Bahama schools, where they discovered some minor plumbing and leaking issues, which he promised will be addressed.
Mr. Fitzgerald noted that last year more than a million dollars was spent on Grand Bahama schools owing to a number of structural areas that needed to be addressed, and that this year the repairs to the various schools should be around ½ million dollars.
Continuing, the Education Minister said they are pleased this year with what they have seen and that the Minister for Grand Bahama has been on top of things.
Mr. Fitzgerald said they have been getting reports from the various schools and that judging from the report, this year there was not a need to visit all schools on Grand Bahama, as some required very little work. He said he visited schools that required more repairs.
With regards to schools being ready for opening day, the Minister said that “it seems like we are not going to have any problems with that. It looks like from what I have seen by the end of next week we will be ready.
On the subject of staffing the Minister informed that last year they employed some one hundred and twenty teachers throughout the Commonwealth of The Bahamas representing the largest influx of teachers they have had in the system for a very long time.
“That helped to address a lot of the deficiencies that had built up over years. What happens is that today we have about two hundred trained teachers who are actually not teaching in the classroom, who are spread either with the ministry’s headquarters or in other ministries throughout the government.
“There is a high demand for highly skilled technical personnel and trained teachers come with a skill set that is needed in the Public Service,” he said.
The Minister noted that last year they made provisions to employ 80 teachers and that he got special Cabinet approval to hire another 120.
“So in one year really, we really filled that gap with the 200 that was missing out of the school system for quite sometime. So we are as well complemented with teachers as we have been in a long time,” he said.
He said he expects to see a full complement of teachers, however one can not get away from the fact that some teachers fail to show up or retire. He said thay have experienced teachers who actually break their contract on opening day.
“So in those instances it normally takes us a week or so to fill those positions, depending on what it is. It may take as much as two weeks, but if it is a math teacher it could take up to a month, but those are the only challenges that we will see, but we are not going in with a shortage as we have in previous years, trying to fill the gap.
“This year we have the compliment and only those who fail to up on the first day of school or couple days before, we may have an issue with, but other than that we are in very good shape,” he stressed.
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, April 19, 2024 – In an attempt to move to 24-hour-a-day operations Turks and Caicos Islands Airports Authority (TCIAA) is steadily recruiting Air Traffic Controllers to work at the Providenciales/Howard Hamilton International Airport, according to Godfrey Smith, TCIAA CEO, reporting to the Appropriations Committee.
Speaking on April 8th Smith said a cabinet paper would be sent soon requesting six more Air Traffic Controllers to make round the clock operation at the Provo International possible and to open the airport in Grand Turk till 12 a.m.
Currently, 17 posts are filled and seven are vacant.
Smith was candid with his responses to recent industrial action from ATCs which led to resignations and firings.
“What we have to do is find systems to mitigate such actions and that has to start with filling these jobs, putting people in that want to
work and doing right by people – and we always try to do right by our staff. Persons may not think that we are but we always do – we ain’t pick no fight,” he said in the meetings held at the NJS Francis building ahead of the National Budget Communication.
Smith indicated that recruitment was an issue across the board, ‘we need to find ways to recruit a little bit better’ he told the committee. Also in need of a push was capital spending or projects according to the CEO, who said the agency had ‘not been very good’ at meeting that mark but insisted they had recognized the issue and could do better.
A very important key performance indicator drawn up by the TCIAA is increasing passenger satisfaction at the Howard Hamilton International Airport. For the TCIAA part of this means a 30 percent increase in seating by Q2 of this year.
When queried on if they could even handle this increase the CEO said,
“The fact of the matter is we already have the capacity there. What we need is to make the service a bit better.”
Staff shortages have become such a frustrating issue that the TCIAA is instituting a scholarship program created by Authority Chairman, Selvyn Hawkins
“What the board wants to do is basically allocate $25,000 annually for a scholarship and they’ve approved it already.”
This process would cover tuition and all other costs for one student.
The student would return as a summer intern and other breaks to work at the TCIAA and upon graduation, assume a role at the company.
“We identify a particular skill we need, we go after it and we build capacity that is in a nutshell the nexus of the program,” Smith said.
The Turks and Caicos Islands Airports Authority (TCIAA) is allocated $49 million this financial year; over $20 million goes to salaries.
Company delivers fastest speeds nationwide and boosts service reliability
PROVIDENCIALES, TURKS AND CAICOS, APRIL 19th, 2024 – More connections, faster speeds and greater support for customers. This is the promise from communications and entertainment provider, Flow TCI, as it embarks on an initiative to provide households with enhanced connections, greater overall reliability and now, for the first time, speeds up to one gigabit person second.
FLOW TCI Country Manager, Joanne Missick shared: “Our customers are at the heart of everything we do. We listen to our customers and want to exceed their demands, so we are focused on delivering unmatched value with customer centric products and services that are future proof. Flow subscribers on our Fibre Extreme package can now access up to one gigabyte speeds and subscribers on our Fibre Plus and Fibre Max package, as of April 1st, are also now benefitting from up to 5x more speeds.”
This is third speed boost for Flow customers in the last two years. This comes under the umbrella of the the Company’s recently launched “Working for You” campaign, where technicians are going into the neighborhoods across the island to conduct repairs, decommission copper cables, and increase the brand’s visibility in local communities.
“To date several neighborhoods have been served by technicians and the company will continue to go across the islands to ensure each neighborhood receives personal attention. We recognize that over the past few months some customers have experienced issues with the quality and delivery of our services. This is not what we stand for. Flow remains committed to providing technology and innovation
that enables growth and positively impacts lives”, says, newly appointed Head of Technical Operations, Simeon Thomas.
Thomas adds, “We have been closely monitoring and reviewing every aspect of our network and there is room for improvement across each of the islands. Where we find shortcomings, we are taking concrete actions and assigning our technicians to rapidly make all necessary adjustments and improvements for our customers”.
Flow has made significant investments in expanding and modernizing its infrastructure and delivering a more robust and reliable network paving the way for the country’s digital transformation.
For more information on speed increases visit https://www2.discoverflow.co/turks-and-caicos/price-adjustment-speed-increase on our website.
Thank you for your usual assistance in sharing our stories.
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