Chatham students protest in front Garcia

The boy pushed his placard in front of the Minister who did everything but avoided reading the placard. As he passed on, Garcia spoke to other students and was seen smiling as he chatted with them. President of the school’s Parent- Teacher Association ( PTA), Denyse Williams, who led the demonstration, told Newsday that the failure of the relevant authorities to complete the school was seriously inconveniencing students and teachers.

“We are frustrated ad fed up of the situation,” she said amid the din of protesters. Williams said about 40 students attended the protest to express their dissatisfaction with the lengthy delay. She said prior to the start of the school’s reconstruction exercise, three years ago, students and teachers were relocated to the ECCE Centre in Southern Gardens, Point Fortin, a 40-minute drive away. Williams, who has a daughter attending the school, said the decision to move temporarily to the ECCE Centre had created severe hardships for the teachers and students.

“The ECCE centre is cramped, heated and very dangerous,” she said. “There are electrical chords running all through the school and we need to come out of there.” To compound matters, Williams said the ECCE centre was built to accommodate just 50 pupils. “But now we have the entire population at Chatham Government there and that is about 140 children,” she said.

“It is very overcrowded, with small toilets, no playground and a small, gated area.” Saying the school was about 85 per cent complete, Williams said they were fed up of the delay. “It is really time for classes to begin,” she said. Education Minister Garcia later said that the school should be completed in two months.