Ceiling at Couva West Secondary collapses

WEEKS before secondary students return to school for the CAPE and CSEC examinations in July, parts of the ceiling of the Couva West Secondary School collapsed on Monday.
MP for the area Rudranath Indarsingh sounded an alarm, asking what would have happened had the children been in the classroom. He said the troubled school was repaired last year and questioned the workmanship.
“This classroom was repaired in the latter part of last year, so this is either shoddy workmanship or lack of supervision of work.”
In addition to the falling ceiling, Indarsingh said the school was one of two in his Couva South constituency broken into the last week. He called on outgoing Ministers of Education Anthony Garcia and Dr Lovell Francis to deal with the security and infrastructural problems at the schools.
In an interview on Monday, Indarsingh said, “This ceiling in Block 2, the second floor collapsed this morning.”
“Where is the leadership of Ministers Garcia and Lovell? Are they going to wait until CSEC or CAPE examination or the SEA exam to do repairs?” he asked.
He said schools have not been functioning for the past three months and some of the infrastructural problems normally addressed during the July/August vacation could have been done during this stay-at-home period, as the intention was always to do these exams before September.
The question of vacation school repairs being postponed was a concern raised by the president of the TT Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) Antonia Tekah De Freitas in her union's objectionto the SEA being done on August 20 and teachers coming out to school to help students prepare from a month before.
Garcia said all repairs will be done in time for September, but Indarsingh said he fears for the safety of students who will be going to school from July.
“Will the ministers be more proactive or will they wait until children are seated in the various classrooms and teachers supervising exams for something to happen before they take action to bring the schools to an acceptable health and safety standard?”
He said Couva West Secondary has been plagued by problems in the past and closed on two occasions for plumbing problems which Garcia suggested were caused by sabotage, as well as a mould problem.
“What excuse would Garcia hide behind this time?
“The minister must be proactive at this time and review all schools. Right now the ministry is not checking infrastructure but more about installing sinks and sanitisation and physical distancing,” he said.