The Parent Teachers Association at the Mt Hope Secondary school is questioning what the Education Ministry did over the July/August vacation since their children were greeted by deplorable conditions on the first day of school yesterday.
The parents staged a small protest outside the school’s compound yesterday, saying the conditions were deplorable, citing an infestation of wood lice, both in the ceiling and furniture.
PTA president Merrell Rodney, said, “OSHA has cordoned off part of the school because it is a risk, parts of the staircase is rotting away. In the quadrangle, people can be electrocuted because the water runs down through the main electrical ports and when rain falls it floods the entire quadrangle, so God forbid, they are electrocuted because there is loose wiring.”
The parents said pictures were sent to the Education Ministry as proof of these problems.
Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA) president Martin Lum Kin also joined the parents in protest.
He said:“We have other schools with greater challenges getting resources. Is it that this school has to under-perform or there has to be violence and indiscipline before intervention takes place? It should not be.”
Addressing the media, Lum Kin said, “What we are privy to, is the fact that this school has been on the high-priority listing for emergency repairs for a number of years. However, when it reaches the higher offices of the Ministry of Education, then it is downgraded and put aside.”
Education Minister, Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, in a statement to GML, said repairs should start soon.
She told the media house: “Through MTS, a contractor is being procured to complete the following repairs: electrical upgrade works, sanitary fittings replacement to female staff washroom, service/repairs to air condition units, water tanks replacement, replacement of partitions to boys’ washroom, cleaning of clogged storm drains.”
The minister said, “The funding required to implement the entire list of school repair projects for the Critical Repair Programme 2024 totalled $190 million. An initial $20 million was available to the MOE, and that was utilised to deal with the most critical works. As more funding became available, other critical projects were added to the work programme.”