Principal, teachers meet at deserted Tranquillity school

Principal of the Tranquillity Government Primary School, Marjorie Bailey, yesterday met with teachers of the school on the deserted premises of its compound to discuss the future of the school.

The meeting was scheduled to start at 9 am, and when Newsday visited the school around 8.45 am, we found Bailey in the company of two teachers inside the school. While the Tranquillity Government Primary School resembles a ghost-town, with its darkened corridors and empty classrooms, the adjacent secondary school, the Tranquillity Government Secondary, was filled with noise, laughter and the sounds of children enjoying some free time before the start of classes. Speaking with Newsday at the school’s office, Bailey said, surprisingly enough, the gates to the school had been unlocked to allow health officials to spray the school, as scheduled. She revealed that it could have been done by the parents, as they are the ones who originally padlocked the gates and prevented both teachers and students from entering the school.

Adding that administration had come fully prepared to hold their meeting on the pavement outside the school, Bailey told Newsday that the guards had been jumping the gates to get into the school on a daily basis. Questioned about whether alternative accommodations had been found for them as requested by the parents, she said the two SEA classes had been accommodated at the Gaines Normal and St Agnes primary schools on a shift basis, as well as at the Parish Hall at the corner of Charlotte and Queen Streets. The school has been closed for more than one week, following a protest by angry parents which claimed the school was a health hazard, and needs to be repaired and refurbished immediately. The Ministry of Education has since stated that reconstruction work will begin in July.

In another matter, students of the Malick Senior Comprehensive School yesterday staged a peace march in the area to demonstrate to the public their determination to keep violence and indiscipline out of their school. Speaking with Newsday, principal Roslyn Trim said the idea for the march had been thrown out to all on the school compound, and that it had been welcomed by all present. She was quite pleased to reveal that 75 percent of the students, accompanied by all staff members, as well as some parents, participated in the one and a half hour-long march. “The march was organised to show the community in the face of all the violence taking place in schools today, that we are determined to keep this school as a peace-loving place,” declared Trim. Stating that Malick had garnered a bad reputation because it was located within a “high-risk area,” principal Trim said the staff had the respect and full cooperation of the students, in spite of the few who tended to stray from time to time. She concluded that the students had made the placards themselves which read “We want peace” and “We do not want war at Malick.”