Point Fortin infants to get temporary unit

VALDEEN SHEARS

MINISTER in the Ministry of Education, Dr Lovell Francis yesterday promised Point Fortin parents that the dilapidated structure which housed infant students of the Fanny Village Government Primary School, will be repaired by next week.

The parents had used social media to highlight the condition of the two-room plywood structure where their children were to be accommodated.

Francis was accompanied to the area yesterday by MP Edmund Dillon and Mayor Abdon Mason.

The school was gutted by fire in 2015 and students were transferred to the Fanny Village community center.

But, the venue was too crowded to house over 300 children and a decision was made to temporarily house the first and second year students in a structure adjacent to the center. The students have been there ever since.

At yesterday’s meeting, the parents said they were “very pleased with the ministry’s intervention, but remain wary about possible empty promises.

One parent told Newsday Francis also promised that the school will be rebuilt at its original site at G Street, Fanny Village.

He is quoted as saying, the ministry believes the foundation of the burnt-out building would be adequate for rebuilding. Parents asked for a time frame, and Francis said he expected that by next year the students would be walking the halls of their new school.

Another meeting to discuss long-term plans for its construction is expected to happen within the next three weeks.

Francis also said, $28 million had already been spent on rebuilding, but the structure had begun sinking. The money, he said, will be recovered through the courts.

Francis said it was time that students were placed in a school, as a community center should be for the use of the community.

Parents have decided to keep their children at home until the repairs are done to the temporary infants’ department.

One parent told Newsday the school had been visited by the education minister of the previous administration, and scheduled meetings with the current minister had been cancelled in the past.

“We are hopeful that something will finally be done, but we have lost faith and confidence.