School for the Blind remains locked

Surratt told Newsday the TTBWA met yesterday with the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, the district’s school supervisor and their legal representatives at the ministry.

No decision, he said, was taken in relation to the removal of the school’s principal and his wife, who teaches at the school. He said that the TTBWA was informed that the Teaching Service Commission was responsible for transfers, disciplining and firing. He said, the meeting was similar to the one held last year with similar outcomes.

He was asked on that occasion for the TTBWA to send their complaints about the principal and his wife, which he did. He was once again asked to resend copies of the complaints which, he said, he will do once again.

Whatever new appointments are being made in terms of teachers and principal, he said, the association must be consulted. The association was not consulted in 2009 when the current principal was appointed.

Since then, he said, teachers were being appointed without consultation.

At present, he said that the school has six teachers and a principal and about five or six children attend school daily. This was due, he said, to the principal shutting down the dorm facilities since 2012 which would have provided live-in accommodation for students who live in both Tobago and Trinidad. It is the only school for blind children in TT, he noted.

On the reopening of the school, which the TTBWA closed a week ago, Surratt said, “We are saying that moving forward to reopen the school, we must get written commitments from the ministry.” The ministry has also promised, he said, to send the association a counter proposal to its memorandum of understanding in relation to the management and administration of the school.

The TTBWA, he said, submitted its draft proposal in June last year.

“The ministry has now have found time to look at it. Once we get their counter proposal,” he said, “the association’s council will meet to discuss it.”