Protest at San Juan Girls and Boys primary

Joel Scott, president of the school’s PTA said construction work at the school stopped for more than two years and the school is 75 per cent completed.

“No body is telling us why the work has stopped. We went to the Waterfront to deliver a letter to the Minister and we spoke with Dr Lovell Francis and they kept telling us the work on the school will restart soon.” He continued, “It is four years the girls are housed at a building in Tunapuna and five years the boys are there with the girls.

The children have to be cramped up in a small building having very little space to move around. We are talking about 300 students housed at a building on the Eastern Main Road obliquely opposite Exodus Pan Theatre.” Scott said Garcia had given the assurance that the ministry has allocated $10 million to complete the school. However, he said during the July/August vacation nothing was done or started at the school.

He said the parents and students are fed up and frustrated with the situation and also promise to continue with the protest until someone addresses the matter.

“ We the parents had to come out in our numbers to clean in front the area of the school because this is where the PTSC buses come to pick and drop off the students on a daily basis. We paint up the area where the children assemble to take the buses. The ministry did not send a CEPEP (Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme ) crew. The holding areas for the toilets are not working, and the flooring in which the toilets stand it was done in plywood and it is rotted, and a health hazard to the children.” Scott said a minority of students went on the bus yesterday to attend classes, and they are hoping more parents will come out to protest to send a strong message to those who are supposed to oversee the situation.