Parents have not been asked to buy beds for students to attend the Port Kaituma Secondary School in Region One (Barima/Waini), Regional Executive Officer Mary Williams said in response to a claim by two PNCR-1G Members of Parliament.
In a GINA release, Williams expressed disappointment that the two PNCR-1G MPs, Aubrey Norton and Desmond Fernandes, did not raise the concerns they expressed in the media about the lack of adequate accommodation for students at the school, water and land titles.
“Not a single person has been asked to buy beds for their children to attend the residential secondary school at Port Kaituma,” GINA quoted Williams as saying, adding that “In fact, the dormitory at present accommodates 35 students and there are 45 mattresses and 25 bunks available.”
The GINA release said that the dormitory, which could accommodate 50 students, was constructed in 2006 and students who meet the requirement for admission were admitted.
The REO explained that earlier this year, two female students who were afraid of “demonic forces” which they claimed were about asked to sleep with the house mother. She accommodated them in her room giving them her bed while she slept on the floor.
Describing the house mother’s act as a commendable one, Williams said that, “The administrator could not now be accused of neglecting to provide the house mother with a bed of her own.”
Stabroek News had contacted a senior education official, who had asked not to be identified, in the region at the time that Norton and Fernandes had made their claim about the lack of adequate sleeping accommodation.
The official had confirmed that there was a dire shortage of mattresses. The official, who had noted the bureaucracy and the time to get some needs addressed, had also indicated that requests had been made to procure mattresses and other much needed essentials for the school.
The REO said that only the house mother is paid on a contract basis while others are paid on a monthly basis. It was true that the house mother had to wait a while before receiving her emoluments but the Regional Democratic Council assisted her during the period, the REO said.
On the issue of the supply of food, Williams said that, “In some instances, as happened during late 2006, releases are inadequate to immediately meet the full payment to the suppliers as, and when the goods are supplied.” She described this as the exception and not the norm.
She said further it was also incomprehensible “when the region’s top CSEC (Carib-bean Secondary Education Certificate) student for 2007 secures nine passes with Five Grade Ones and when there were six students with nine passes and 16 achieving between five to eight subjects, an achievement never attained before 2007,” that some could claim that the region was not delivering quality education. (The top student, Jed Vasconcellos secured nine passes with six grade ones as reported in the September 2, 2007 edition of the Sunday Stabroek.)
Williams said, too, that never before in the history of the region have residents enjoyed pure water supply, electricity, and the processing and distribution of land titles.
She said that the RDC with the assistance of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission and the Matarkai Neighbourhood Democratic Council have rehabilitated over 80 kilometres of main roadway linking Port Kaituma, Matthew’s Ridge, Arakaka and Baramita at a cost in excess of $100 million.
She noted, however, that recalcitrant truckers destroy the roadway with heavily laden trucks during the rainy weather even though RDC rules prohibit such conduct. Williams urged the MPs to assist the regional administration to get the truckers to be more responsible and assist in the maintenance of the roads.
