Despite assurances from the Education Minister that all schools would be ready for reopening yesterday for the new school term, teachers who showed up for duty at Princes Town ASJA Primary School met an empty schoolyard.
Parents of students at the school kept their children at home in protest over the faulty electrical system at the school.
So said second vice-president of the T&T Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA) Lynsley Doodhai yesterday.
He added: “The parents took a decision to keep their children away from school as they had expected repairs to be carried out over the holidays but that was not done.
“They were very disappointed. This problem has been plaguing the school since last term.” Doodhai said teachers who showed up for duty yesterday met an empty schoolyard. “When our teachers reported for duty they did not see any children there so they left and went back home,” he added.
He said he did not know how long the action would last. Doodhai said classes at the Princes Town East Secondary were also disrupted when teachers walked out of classes yesterday morning. The teachers left the compound around 11 am, citing the non-functioning air conditioning system at the school as their reason for leaving.
“The teachers indicated that they a re frustrated with the a/c issues at the school as it is very hard for them to teach when the system is not working. “There is a serious heat problem at the school and so teachers took the decision this morning to walk out,” he added. Doodhai said there were 45 teachers at the school and the majority of them left the compound around 11 am. “The teachers think it’s very unfair to them. They were promised that the system would be back in place before the start of this term. Last term they chose to suffer through the problems as they wanted to get students ready for exams,” he said.
However, a source in the Ministry of Education’s Communication Department said up until noon yesterday, the school’s principal was in talks with a TTUTA representative. Doodhai subsequently denied that TTUTA was in talks with the ministry, stating: “No one contacted us. As far as I know there are no talks ongoing. The teachers have left the school.” On a tour of the school on Sunday, Education minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh assured that classes would have been reopened yesterday.
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Fanny Village, Barrackpore West back up
Students of the Fanny Village Government Primary School were back to classes yesterday morning at the village’s community centre.
Six classrooms and a computer room were destroyed by an early morning fire at the school on April 5.
Following a visit by then acting Minister of Education, Fazal Karim, it was proposed to use the newly-built Fanny Village Community Centre until the new school building can be completed.
Yesterday, nine of the classes were accommodated in the centre with the additional four classes being housed in containers on the community centre’s compound.
A source at the Ministry of Education said the school’s 307 students were well accommodated in the community centre.
There was also a reported early closure of two schools—the Cunapo RC School and the North Oropouche Government Primary School—due to a disconnection in the water supply as WASA treats with an ongoing problem in the area.
Students at the Barrackpore West Secondary and Barataria Secondary are expected to resume classes tomorrow, as students will be housed in the classrooms previously used by exam students.
There was also a fire in Block E of the Barrackpore West Secondary earlier this year, causing several classes to be suspended.