Crumbling classrooms

LARGE NUMBERS of children in this country are putting themselves at risk to get an education. They attend schools that are overcrowded and dilapidated, where problems ranging from broken sewers, to leaking roofs and crumbling walls make their classrooms dangerous and uncomfortable. Some are earmarked for repair by the Ministry of Education, others are yet to get attention from the relevant authorities and in most cases are regularly disrupted when conditions deteriorate to the point where the buildings are too unsafe for occupation. Frequent protests by parents and school officials have drawn attention to the deplorable conditions in schools across the country but while the Ministry has promised to repair several of them, there has been little or no progress in that area. Investigations by Sunday Newsday have revealed a system so bogged down by bureaucracy and delays that it takes years, in most cases, for desperately needed school upgrades and repairs to be completed.

At present the Ministry of Education is seeking tenders for the construction of new school buildings for Penal Govern-ment, Salibya Government, Montevideo Government and Egypt Government, as well as primary schools at Lower Morvant, Manzanilla, Buenos Ayres, Chatham and Tunapuna. Students at these schools would have to be relocated to temporary facilities until their new school buildings are completed. However, relocation can create its own problems. In the case of Paramin RC in Maraval, classes were relocated to an old supermarket building in the district because the former school did not have a roof and when it rained there was serious damage to school property and equipment. “Everyone likes Paramin, and we were receiving grants to fix the school until the roof was removed, and now we have to be here,” said a teacher, who told Sunday Newsday the temporary location is unsafe for a primary school.

A parent complained: “The children have assembly and play right in front of the school. This isn’t safe, because it is right on the road!” He added: “There is flooding in one of the classes.” St Paul’s Anglican School in San Fernando and the Cumana Village School in Toco faced similar predicaments. When those school buildings were deemed unsafe, the students were forced to relocate and now operate on a shift system with other schools in conditions that are best described as congested and inconvenient. In the case of the Cumana school, Ministry officials only took action after members of the PTA staged a protest demonstration and got the attention of Education Minister Hazel Manning, last July. “A delegation from Cumana Village met with her and she admitted our school was not on the list to be repaired,” PTA President Joan Bannister recalled. “We were moved to Cumana RC and they told us that the school would have been finished in a year. The building is still the same.” Bannister said she was very disappointed at the lack of progress.

“We as parents are dissatisfied, and we need to make a decision to meet again,” she said. Tunapuna Government Primary School, which is not on the Ministry’s list of schools in need of repair, rebuilding, or replacement is a 120-year-old landmark which is showing its age, with cracks outside and inside the building. “If my child were in that school I would have to move him, it is dangerous! A sewer wall fell down last year, and a brick wall fell down inside the school one evening,” a nearby resident remarked. Children are still attending classes in the crumbling structure despite numerous attempts by residents and parents to get Ministry officials to intervene. TTUTA President Clyde Permell, said he was totally dissatisfied with the situation and criticised the Ministry for lack of action and broken promises. “Many of the schools are in the same state, and we are waiting for some time now,” he said.

“The Ministry of Education falls short with its maintenance and building programme. These places are not fit to be occupied, Permell added.” Also expressing concern at the sorry state of some of the country’s schools was Sister Catherine Theresa McComie, Secretary of the Catholic School Board. She told Sunday Newsday: “I think it is bureaucracy that is why it is taking so long.” McComie said sometimes she is ashamed to admit that she is the secretary of a school board because of the deplorable condition of so many schools. “We have to speak the truth, and don’t hide because it is for our children. The children are growing and leaving the undone schools behind. . . and we are still waiting,” she said.

McComie said the Catholic School Board was willing to go ahead with work on some schools, then get reimbursed by the Ministry at a later date. “It takes a while to get the money back,” she said. “We send out contractors and wait but this past week I couldn’t wait because the school yard at Chaguanas RC was bad. Even with Paramin RC we were willing to go ahead and they said to stop because they would build it. We were going to repair the school,” McComie said. McComie also said parents have a right to protest and complain because children are entitled to quality conditions. She added that there are 121 primary schools under the jurisdiction of the Catholic School Board and many are in need of repair. “Everyday of the week something happens with them,” she admitted.