After years of working under poor conditions and numerous letters to the authorities regarding the situation, students, their parents and staff of the L’Aventure Secondary School located on the West Bank Demerara yesterday locked the gates of the school to protest its deplorable state.
Regional Education Officer (REdO) of Region Three, Baydewan Rambarran during the course of the protest met with the frustrated parents and promised them that he would discuss the issue with the Regional Administration and assured them that some work would be undertaken.
The parents distributed a flyer which was headed “Deplorable Conditions under which Students and Staff operate at L’Aventure Secon-dary School, Canal # 1, West Bank Demerara” which Stabroek News was informed was part of a letter sent to the REdO and copied to the Guy-ana Teachers Union (GTU) on January 17 this year. The flyer stated that “the staff and the student of L’Aventure Secondary School are being plagued by the inhuman conditions” at the said school and listed myriad problems including inoperable toilets, bat infestation, exposed wiring, rotten floorboards, a leaking roof and inadequate furniture among others.
The flyer went on to state that “over the years several letters have been addressed to the Regional Executive Officer of the Regional Democratic Council, Region #3 but little or nothing has been done to satisfactorily resolve these matters.”. The flyer further declared that works carried out have served to compound these problems and “there is a need for a forensic assessment of all the problems and then a comprehensive solution can be reached”.
Carol Skeete, a member of the Patents Teachers Associa-tion (PTA) of the school told Stabroek News that after numerous meetings and countless promises by regional officials the decision was taken in a meeting last Friday to close the school for two days. However, yesterday the decision was taken to close the school for a week.
Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) president Colwyn King who was also present instructed the staff of the school to report to the Region Three Education Office for the duration of the closure. Skeete said that the PTA was waiting to see if the promises made by Rambarran would be fulfilled during the period which included fixing the lights in the bathroom, finding someone to look after the bats and fixing the steps to one of the buildings whose support structure and rail is broken. Listing the problems facing the school she said that even though students are preparing to write the Caribbean Secondary School Exami-nations (CSEC) the situation was too much for them to work under.
The flyer also drew attention to other problems faced by the school including no running water in the building, no staff room or emergency facilities, lack of furniture for teachers, bat infested roofs, the ceiling falling apart and in some cases non-existent, classrooms without books, no electricity in the back building, exposed electrical wires, lighting fixtures in need of repair, rotten auditorium floor boards, a leaking roof, inadequate seating for students, a critical support beam for the auditorium broken, a support post for the steps broken, windows off their hinges, water soaked books in the library, no accommodation for bicycles and inadequate space for a computer lab.
It was explained that whenever it rains the water accumulates under the school for long periods causing the building to sink and the ceiling beans to loosen. Also it floods the low-lying bathrooms of which only one is operable. There are 390 students attending the school and teachers sometimes return home to use their facilities. Additionally, the security guard at the school refuses to patrol one of the blocks because there is no electricity. Stabroek News was informed that as a result of the lax security and the plywood doors which were easily broken people would break in and “do all sorts of activities” and the mornings would see the students picking up used condoms, underwear and other items. It was also explained that while that particular block had electricity before, it was cut off because of a problem with the transformer and never reconnected. The flyer stated that “these are not conditions under which any human can work”.
Meanwhile two CSEC candidates sought out this newspaper to state their anxiety concerning their exams. Jamal Alleyne and Rayell Carrington expressed their concern saying they were worried that their School-Based Assessments (SBA) and other work would fall behind. They spoke of the problems encountered by them including having to stop classes when rain falls because it would enter through the broken windows and of bat waste getting into their eyes among other problems. They said they hope that the situation would be rectified soon as they are very worried about their exams. “We ain’t getting no teaching and we ain’t getting to see with Miss about SBA’s” they said.
