Parents protest at 2 South schools

Students of Princes Town Presbyterian No 1 are currently on a shift system with the students of Princes Town Presbyterian school No 2. Parents held separate peaceful demonstrations at Iere Village Government and Princes Town Presbyterian No 1 yesterday to highlight their frustration at the ongoing problems at the two schools.

At Iere Village Government, parents, accompanied by several students in their uniforms, held aloft placards which read: “1st day- school starts at 8.30 am. school dismissed at 10 am. No water, no toilet” and “Minister Garcia- help us now.” The schools PTA president
Denish Boodoo told reporters the PTA wrote the authorities, including the Ministry of Education and the Princes Town Regional Corporation (PTRC), several times since May to have the problems addressed prior to the start of the September term.

“Since May this year we have been sending letters to the relevant authorities concerning this leakage on the northern side of the school, so when we came in on Monday and see the problem wasn’t resolved, we decided to hold an emergency meeting with the parents because this thing cannot continue,” he said. Gesturing to the sprawling school compound, Boodoo explained, “across there the drain is about three feet deep, and anytime there is water in the line, we notice that water does be gushing through certain points in the drain there and after a certain point in time, the tanks becomes empty and due to that, they does have to dismiss school early.”

“Monday and Tuesday gone, we had to dismiss school half day because it had no water,” he continued. “Another concern is that the foundation is cracking, and apart from the cracking there is a piece of the box drain that has already collapsed. The problem there is that the computer room and the caf? is there so there are always students at that side of the school and that is a hazard to them.” Missy Dopson, a parent, said parents will keep their children home until repairs are done. “We are not going to send our children to school if it is in this condition because safety is first, as much as we want education for our children, We can’t send them to a school and know that something can happen to them and when we have no water, we can’t flush the toilet, that is a next sanitary health problem,” Dopson said.

And in Princes Town, Presbyterian No 1’s PTA president Nola Ramjohn-Karim and members held a protest at the “abandoned school’s” Edward street compound. “This protest will continue because we still haven’t gotten any definite answer as to what is the situation with our school so until we get something more definite, we are keeping up the protest,” Ramjohn-Karim said.

She said a “meeting of sorts” has been held with the Presbyterian Primary schools Board and a proposal for the demolition and rebuilding of the school at its edward street site was sent to the education Ministry. In response to the two cases, a ministry official said WASA and the education Facilities Company Limited visited Iere Village Government on Wednesday to assess the school and prepare a scope of works.