Close to 1,000 primary schools students were without teachers on the first school day of the new school term yesterday as teachers stayed away from three primary schools.
Second vice president of the T&T Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) Lynsley Doodhai said yesterday teachers stayed away from the Princes Town #2 Presbyterian School, the St Therese RC School, Rio Claro, and the Mt D’or Primary School.
He explained: “The two South schools have the same problem where the buildings are threatened by landslips.
“When teachers turned up at the Mt D’or school this morning, they discovered it was still under construction so they left as well.”
Doodhai said the problems at the South schools were ongoing and he called on the ministry to address those problems.
“Since last term, the St Therese RC was closed as the ministry sent a message to parents to keep their children away but they still wanted teachers to come to work.
“Teachers at the Princes Town Presbyterian would have walked out last term as well and we are still awaiting a structural integrity test to be carried out on that building,” he added. A shift system was to be put in place at two other schools to accommodate the students of the affected schools, Doodhai said.
“We understand some kind of shift system will be put in place at the South schools where the Poole RC School and the St Therese will be used to accommodate students from the two other schools,” he added.
He said the lengthy ongoing construction of the Rio Claro Primary School was another problem.
“We are urging the ministry to complete this school, as almost half of the children from Saint Therese are Rio Claro students. It will be very difficult to accommodate them all at Poole. If Rio Claro is completed, it would ease the situation significantly,” he noted.
Doodhai also said there was a major problem with small primary schools in the Port-of-Spain area and is calling on the ministry to step in and rectify it immediately.
“The principals of about 14 small government primary schools in Port-of-Spain have informed me that since September 2013, they have not been receiving any school supplies from the ministry.
“No toilet paper, no brooms, no copy paper, no cleaning tools. They (principals) have been raising money on their own to purchase these supplies,” he said.
Ministry responds
The Education Ministry communications specialist, Visham Ramsawak, said the decision to have a shift system at the St Therese RC School was taken in a stakeholder meeting which included the school’s board.
Ramsawak said tender to repair the school had been sent out and a contract worth an estimated $2 million would soon be awarded.
He claimed the new Rio Claro Presbyterian School was almost complete and would be ready for opening soon.
In relation to Mt D’or Government Primary, Ramsawak said, the repairs were completed and should be opened in a day or two.
Sewerage problems in Malabar
Principal of Malabar RC Primary School, Lyzel Cummings, is being asked by parents of children at the school to explain why a persistant problem with the sewerage system has not been rectified over the Christmas vacation.
The school closed one week early for the Christmas holiday because of a sewerage problem in one of the school’s restrooms and reopened yesterday, yet the problem persists.
The T&T Guardian received a complaint by a parent, who said that when she learned the sewerage problem remained active, she attempted to remove her child from the school but was barred from doing so by security following instructions from the principal.