The Ministry of Education has approved the suspension of classes at President’s College (PC) for two days following a protest by students yesterday over the unavailability of potable water as a result of a defective water pump.
The pump broke down over three weeks ago, before the start of the new school term, and up to yesterday it had not been rectified. Students had complained to Stabroek News about this on September 20.
The Civil Defence Commission had been trucking water into the compound, but students had complained about the inadequacy and quality of water.
Close to 150 students, some of them in uniform, stood under a tree’s shade on the Public Road at Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara yesterday morning and made their concerns known to the media. They also made use of placards to highlight the issue.
The decision to suspend classes came after intervention from the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU), which said it managed to convince the minister that this was the way to go since it was unfair for students and teachers to work under the current conditions.
Minister Shaik Baksh, in a brief comment to Stabroek News late yesterday, said his ministry has approved monies for the rehabilitation of the pump, which collapsed sometime ago. He acknowledged that the repairs might take some time.
According to the minister, there was some delay in the supply of the water to the students yesterday, and this might have spurred the protest.
Baksh said he gave PC Principal Cheryl Trim permission to call off classes for yesterday and today. Baksh is to meet Trim and the chairman of the school’s board to arrange a better system to ensure a continuous supply of water to the students.
“But the students will have to understand and work with this until the problem is fixed and they would continue to have running water,” the minister said.
He said the contractor should start working almost immediately, since he has already received the go-ahead to proceed.
Contacted by this newspaper yesterday GTU President Colwyn King said he and other GTU officials met Trim yesterday, but she was adamant that she had to wait on the minister to make a decision and the union proceeded to meet with the teachers.
“When we met with them they made it clear that there were leaving and so we informed the minister of the teaching staff’s position and we convinced him to close the school until further notice,” King said.
He said the decision came after much debate and “back and forth”.
Questioned about whether the salaries of teachers would be affected, King said this could not happen since the teachers’ decision was supported by the law, which states that it is the ministry’s responsibility to ensure that the environment was conducive for teaching.
When this newspaper tried to get clarification from the principal, she said: “I am mad right now and I don’t have anything to say to the media, because I am very angry. Maybe when I calm down,” the woman said before hanging up the phone.
This newspaper then called Trim two hours later at which time she said, “Look I don’t like talk to media. I think you all got enough information. Whatever the children said, is that, have a nice say,” Trim said before putting the phone down once more.
During the protest, the students told Stabroek News they felt that since the water problem came about even before the start of the new school term, there was enough time for it to be rectified.
An upper sixth form student Shane Pearce, who spoke on behalf of his fellow students, explained to this newspaper that even though water was being supplied by the CDC, its quality was deplorable.
The students showed samples of water they said came from a tank in the school’s dining hall. The water was close to orange in colour with a lot of sedimentation. This the students compared with a bottle filled with water from the trench, which clearly showed a marked difference; the sample from the trench appeared more suited for human consumption.
The students said when they woke up yesterday morning there was no water to prepare breakfast and some of them said they were not even able to have baths.
Minutes after this newspaper arrived yesterday morning, shortly after 10, containers arrived with the students’ breakfast and later some of them were seen drinking hot beverages from disposable cups and munching croissants.
Pearce said about two weeks ago, a contractor had arrived and started setting up equipment to start work on the pump, but said he had not heard anything further and so had left.
Pearce and others said that they only managed to have a bath yesterday morning because a damaged hydrant at a bridge at the entrance of the school compound was squirting water, which they used.
However, the toilets at the residential school could not be flushed and the schoolyard was filthy owing to the presence of cows on the premises.
Some of the students said they were forced to go to the homes of teachers who lived nearby to get water to drink.
They said they had raised their concerns with administrator Derrick Jodhan and according to Pearce, they were told that the matter was raised with the Ministry of Education.
Contacted for a comment, Jodhan said he was unsure what actually triggered the protest by the students but admitted that there was a problem with the tractor, which took in water. He said he understood that the solution that was being provided could not be 100% effective adding that water coming from the tap was always ideal.
According to Jodhan, with the assistance of the Ministry of Education the school has alternative supplies of water. He said the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) takes water to the school’s compound every other day and the school also has an arrangement with Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) whereby water was transported from GWI’s Paradise office on a daily basis.
When Jodhan was spoken to on September 21, he told Stabroek News there was adequate water to run the school’s operation.
Jodhan said contractors from GWI had already visited and inspected the school’s well and it was discovered that over the years sediment had built up at the bottom of the well. This has not only discoloured the water making it impossible to use, but also has blocked the passage of the water.
He said he has been in constant contact with the Education Ministry to have the well fixed but pointed out that it was a very costly exercise. It is estimated that to fix the well would cost some $1M. “We are trying to source the money and so far the response from the Ministry of Education has been favourable, up to this morning I was in contact with the deputy permanent secretary,” Jodhan had said.
President’s College had suffered water problems in the past, but according to the students, this time it was unbearable since the problem had never persisted for so long.
