Students struggle to get to school

DESPITE an assurance from Education Minister Anthony Garcia to pay five months of arrears owed maxi-taxi drivers who provide transport for students, drivers are standing firm in their decision to withhold their service until all monies are paid.

Yesterday, for the second day in a row, 35,000 students who depend on this form of transport to get to and from their schools across the country, were left struggling. MP for Mayaro Rushton Paray scolded Garcia for not putting a priority on the education of the children, especially those from rural communities who depend on this service.

Paray said he was deeply moved on Monday morning, when during the heavy downpour, hundreds of children were stranded because the maxi drivers refused to work.

He said he had to arrange transportation for some of the children. On Tuesday morning again, his wife ‘packed’ their vehicle with students to take them to Princes Town as drivers stayed away.

Paray said over the years children from Mayaro have been performing well at the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examination and were passing for schools like St Stephen’s College and Cowen Hamilton secondary in Princes Town and Naparima Girls’ and Naparima College in San Fernando. He said a lot of parents could not meet the exorbitant cost of transportation and depended on the service.

He felt these children were being penalised for being ‘bright’. The opposition MP was critical of Garcia, accusing him of passing the blame to the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) which contracts the drivers. He said the Ministry needed to fix its administrative issues and pay the drivers.

Paray raised the question as an urgent matter in the House of Representatives on Monday and Garcia promised money would have been in the driver’s bank account by Monday afternoon. Paray said he spoke with several drivers on Tuesday and their accounts had not been credited.

On Monday morning approximately three dozen members of the Association of Maxi Taxi School Transport Concessionaires of TT, parked their vehicles on the PTSC compound, San Fernando, in protest. Association president Rodney Ramlogan said the 350 drivers they represent are owed between $2 to $3 million in arrears and they will not transport another school child until they are paid what is owed to them.