Closed schools, a yearly problem

Caroni Central MP Dr Bhoe Tewarie has slammed the Education Ministry for failing to oversee the opening of all schools throughout the country for the new term -- a phenomena he said, is a yearly occurrence.

He pointed out in a press release that last Friday, Minister Anthony Garcia said during a press conference that three schools will remain closed on Monday, the opening of the new school term. This is unsatisfactory, Tewarie said, since these three schools had problems dating back well into last year. “There was time as well as opportunity enough, in my view, to resolve outstanding issues.”

On one of the three schools, South East Port of Spain Secondary, Tewarie said that following an incident last November, where a stray bullet entered the classroom, the staff was fearful to return to the school.

Works for “hardening” the school with concrete louvres remain incomplete. This is a peculiar problem, Tewarie said, particular to the community in which this school is located.

“Besides the infrastructure work, the minister should have worked with National Security and the Parent Teachers Association to ensure that this school was opened on time. Just because a child lives in a rough neighbourhood does not mean that he/she should be deprived of a good education.”

On Couva West Government Secondary, another school that remains closed, Tewarie said extensive roof work is ongoing as several deadlines have not been met. Students of Forms 5 and 6 are being accommodated elsewhere for a few weeks.

“This matter has been ongoing for too long. My colleagues from Couva North and South have raised this matter in Parliament and here children are being deprived of education as well. How can such a situation be justified?”

On the final school, Edinburgh Government Primary, the MP said a report by Public Health has cleared/deemed fit this school for occupation following a mould problem. However, TTUTA has appealed the findings and disputed the fitness of the school.

According to Minister Garcia, teachers have identified other issues, which his ministry is working on resolving. “The minister said $454,586 has already been spent on repairs on this school. The issue is not how much money was spent, but whether the problem has been resolved and whether the money spent yielded the desired results. Clearly neither has happened.”

With Edinburgh 500 school remaining closed on Monday, 526 students are being denied an educational opportunity and day to day schooling since the middle of November.

“This is unacceptable, this school is in the constituency of Caroni Central and I am very unhappy as representative for this district, that a matter so important as schooling for 526 students has not been resolved over a three month period. As I understand it the OSHA Report is not in, from the teachers’ and TUTTA’s point of view the matter is not resolved, the children are deprived of learning and the parents are in dismay.”

Tewarie said there has to be something wrong at the leadership level in terms of clarity and priorities; at managerial level, in the context of projects; and with regard to logistics - in terms of preparation, realistic timelines, resource allocation and deployment, project competence and worker alignment and productivity that allows the ministry to be in this position, year after year, the start of every school term.

In addition, he said, a check with the 16 primary schools within his constituency showed that Preysal Government has a leaking commercial valve that has not been repaired. MTS visited and promised to fix this over the Christmas vacation, but there has been no action and the problem remains today.

“These teachers and children had to move from a structurally unsound school to the nearby Community Centre. Now they have to deal with a leaking valve and water problems with a pending dry season. With regard to the Preysal Government School a partially completed building for a new school (about 60 per cent) remains abandoned and despite allocations in 2016, 2017 and 2018, there have been no work progress.”

Saying that in the past, Minister Garcia promised to complete the school, Tewarie said, “I wait every day to see if he will keep his promise.”