26 schools still closed

We are now entering the the third week of the new school term and there are 26 schools still closed, according to Education Ministry Anthony Garcia’s latest count.

TT Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA) general secretary Fitzroy Daniel felt this was too long a period for students to be without classes.

He said there were different factors which prevented the reopening of these schools which included damage caused by the 6.9 earthquake which rocked the country on September 21. There were also other mitigating factors where repairs were not completed.

“Hopefully schools will be reopened as soon as possible. We are now entering the third week of school. Children are missing these weeks of school and when we make statements the minister believes it is a fight against him, but it is not a fight. Our interest is to see that education is being provided for our students and that schools are up and running and schools are functional because that is the only way we could develop a functional society.”

He said people would blame teachers when they hear teachers were not turning up for classes but did not look at the bigger picture..

“People are not considering the length of time the ministry has these schools non functional. We are going into three weeks and the children are suffering,so when teachers take a day once in how many years, it does not impact as much as three weeks and the children don’t have teachers there to teach them.”