Georgetown: The interruption of classes at the Port Kaituma School due to protest action yesterday was described as a surprise by Minister within the Local Government Ministry, Norman Whittaker.
The Minister, in a statement issued by the Government Information Agency (GINA), revealed that “redress to the situation that was highlighted was imminent.”
According to Whittaker, a team, comprising Regional Executive Officer (REO), Nigel Fisher, Assistant Regional Executive Officer (AREO), Deon Seecharran and Senior Superintendent of Works, Cy Rodrigues, had just last week Thursday visited the Port Kaituma Primary and other nearby schools and carried out a conditional survey of the school buildings and surroundings.
With regards to the Port Kaituma Primary, the visit allowed the team the opportunity to update the newly appointed Headmistress (HM), Sharon Murray, of the plans for assisting the school with regards to its infrastructure under the region’s 2012 budget. The meeting also allowed the team to hear from the HM some of the issues concerning the school.
Some of the issues discussed were overcrowding, furniture shortage, the sanitary conditions and insufficient water storage capacity, Whittaker said. The meetings also saw consensus on the solution to the problems and it was decided that as soon as the region receives its full support of desk and benches for the New Year that 40 pairs would be given to the school to address the furniture shortage.
An extension to the school, an annex, was proposed to house approximately 80 students while it was agreed that the sanitary blocks and other main programmes will be done under the 2012 education budget.
Whittaker said that it then came as a surprise that the same Headmistress that met with the team and agreed to the conditions was the following day (January 15) present at a Community Teacher Association meeting (CTA) where the decision was taken to protest against the same issues that were on the roster to be resolved.
Whittaker said according to reports, some of the teachers, parents and students of the schools, took the protest action Monday and that apparently one of the parents took the decision to secure the gate to the school with a huge padlock and that it was only later in the afternoon that the teachers were allowed to return to the school following the intervention by the DEO and the AREO accompanied by a police.
He said that “by the time the intervention had been made most of the students had long gone home.”
Minister Whittaker said given that the HM was granted the opportunity to ventilate her concerns at the forum with the team comprising the REO, her conduct with regards to the protest action was unprofessional. The visit by the senior officials allowed for certain commitments to be made with regards to the issues, Whittaker said, and if the HM felt that these commitments were inadequate she was provided the forum to address these concerns. Similarly, the behaviour of the teachers involved in the protest was irresponsible, he added, as they allowed themselves to be misled even as the issues were being addressed.
However, several residents informed this publication today that while concerns about the school were ventilated yesterday, the main focus of the protest action was the deplorable access road which no-one in authority seems to be addressing despite numerous complaints.
Minister of Public Works Robeson Benn in an invited comment yesterday said that while he is not aware of the condition of the road or the dilemma faced by the residents who access it, he intends to investigate their concerns. “What I do know is that there have been a lot of rainfalls recently and they have been using the road and we have been losing portions of it as a result. I am personally not aware of the situation but I will ask my people to look into it,” the Minister said.
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