Dilapidated Sanabis school to be revamped

Manama : The education authority yesterday reversed its decision to shut down a dilapidated school in Sanabis, and instead would revamp it now.

The move follows intervention by Prime Minister HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa requiring the authority to carry out necessary maintenance and construction works immediately at Sanabis Primary Girls School.

“The Prime Minister’s directives reiterate his support to the education system in Bahrain and his eagerness to provide the best quality education to the students here,” the Education Ministry’s statement read.

Two weeks ago, the Ministry had announced the closure of the school, after receiving numerous complaints about its rodent-infested building.

It had also announced that the students would be shifted to nearby Sanabis Primary Boys School, while a new girls’ school is being constructed in the area. The ministry also said that students of the boys’ school would be transferred to other schools in the locality.

However, the people of Sanabis rallied against the decision, which they said “solved an issue by creating another one.”

Many parents, teachers and students of Sanabis Primary Boys School appealed to the Premier to reconsider the decision to transfer students and teachers to other schools “far away from Sanabis.”

The area’s parliamentary representative, MP Adel Hameed, who has been following up the issue for the past two years, recently stated that the Ministry is looking into other alternatives to contain the situation, without harming the interests of teachers and students of both the schools.

The Sanabis Primary Girls School, which is one of the oldest in Bahrain (established in 1968), serves students of over 11,000 families living in the area. 

According to MP Hameed, more than 250 families have been added to the area with the recent opening of Burhama Community Housing Project to the eastern borders of Sanabis.