Protest outside Flanagin RC

SHARLENE RAMPERSAD

ALMOST a century ago, the ancestors of the currents students of the Flanagin Town RC School were moved into a nearby church when their school building was destroyed by fire. It was supposed to be a temporary measure but yesterday, parents of the school staged a protest as they called for a start to construction of a new building.

Located in a remote village in Central Trinidad, the ‘school’ houses about 65 students. The church building is next to the site earmarked for the school’s construction. The makeshift classrooms are divided by rotting, termite-infested blackboards.

Their rotting benches are also infested and many students have complained of being bitten by the tiny pests as classes are conducted. The church roof also leaks in several places and students are pelted with rain through broken window panes when there are heavy downpours.

Although the community was promised a new school in 2014 and construction began on a retaining wall around the site, there has been nothing done since. Yesterday as frustrated parents burned tyres and blocked the main road in the community, they called on the Education Ministry to start the school.

“We have been begging them for years but it seems like we have been forgotten in Flanagin,” president of the school’s Parent Support Group, Latesha Meharris told Newsday.