Mrs Manning: Meeting over violence closed school

Education Minister Hazel Manning Friday admitted that suspension of classes at Tranquillity Government Sec-ondary School was the result of violent attacks on the students of St Mary’s college. The Minister commenting after calling a press conference to discuss the issue of indiscipline in the nation’s Education system said, “The school has not been closed. There has been no shut down. An emergency meeting was called by which all the teachers had to attend, and since there would not have been any teachers to supervise the children, it was decided that classes should be suspended.” Responding to comments made by President of the National Parent Teacher Asso-ciation, Zeena Ramatalli, who deemed the closure of Tran-quillity government, unfair, Education Minister Hazel Manning ruled out favouritism saying, “This issue is not a special case. All situations are different, and have to be treated as individual problems.”

Ms Ramatally cited various violent incidents among schools throughout the country and explained than none caused closure of another. While the Minister maintained the issue was not a special case, she revealed classes would resume on Monday at Tranquillity Government Sec-ondary. She said a report would be submitted to the Education Ministry following a meeting with Ministry officials and Tranquillity staff members. The Minister also outlined several factors that she felt contributed to the growing problem of indiscipline in schools and among them she cited teacher absenteeism as a major factor. According to the Minister, between 16 percent to 20 percent of teachers are absent on a daily basis at some of the nation’s high risked Secondary schools. Also closed is the La Hor-quetta South Government Primary school, following an attack on the school’s principal by a parent earlier in the week. She is also awaiting a report on that incident, but had already referred the Guidance supervisor, Steve Williams, to take a closer look at the problems at the school.