We made a mistake

EDUCATION MINISTER Hazel Manning yesterday conceded that her ministry’s decision to transfer 12-year-old Kalifa Logan from the St Charles High School in Tunapuna to the Five Rivers Junior Secondary School may have been a mistake. She gave her commitment the ministry will do all in its power to ensure that this unfortunate, ongoing saga is brought to a satisfactory conclusion and does not impact negatively on Logan’s education. Kalifa was denied her place at St Charles after school principal Sister Adrianna Noel complained about her dreadlocks and she was subsequently transferred to Five Rivers, creating an uproar in the population. Kalifa’s family and Five Rivers vice-principal Joseph De Gannes said they were unaware of the ministry’s decision. Her mother, Lynette Marshall, has vowed that Kalifa will not attend Five Rivers.

Kalifa herself has expressed a desire to attend El Dorado Secondary instead of St Charles. Speaking for the first time about Kalifa’s predicament during the tea break in the Senate, Manning told Newsday, “Schools have their codes of conduct and they measure discipline by their codes and infraction of the codes, you then measure whether there is a discipline problem or not. On the other hand, the young lady has her rights. Really what you are seeing there is that interaction between the rights of the young lady and the school’s code of discipline.” She explained that in situations like Kalifa’s, the ministry tries to “facilitate the process.” “We discuss and we negotiate. We try to come to some conclusion.

In this particular instance, we thought that a transfer would have been the right thing to do. From what I read in the newspapers today, the young lady and her family were not satisfied. We will then continue our negotiations until it is sorted out.” The minister gave the assurance that everything will be done to ensure that Kalifa is not denied her right to an education. “Our lawyer is looking into it. She is going to give us a report shortly,” Manning added. Her comment differed significantly from those made by her ministry’s communications specialist Mervyn Critchlow, 24 hours earlier. On Monday, he told Newsday that Kalifa’s situation was being “blown out of proportion.” Critchlow was also very vague on the details of Kalifa’s transfer from St Charles to Five Rivers when questioned further.