– students sent home
Officials at the Port Kaituma Secondary School were forced to send home the children who use the dormitory facility because of a lack of food.
Stabroek News has been reliably informed that only three of the 40 children who use the facility remain at the dormitory and they were allowed to remain after some residents in the area committed to providing food for them.
The others, most from far flung areas, left the facility on Thursday and Friday and the dorms mother has reported that she does not known when they can be accommodated again as the cupboards are bare. Reports are that last week Thursday a meeting was held with regional officials and a decision was made to send the children home.
The issue of food at the facility, which has been a long-standing one, has come up again since business persons refused to provide food items on credit. Sources have indicated that the business persons are upset over the way they are paid by the regional administration as it takes months before they are paid. One resident said a businessman was at one time owed in excess of $8 million by the administration and “was hell to get he money”.
“The business people say if dem don’t get direct payment dem not providing food stuff,” a resident told this newspaper.
It was reported that for most of last week the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) was forced to provide food for the children.
“If they know that they can’t give the children food then tell the parents so they wouldn’t send the children because now they starving the children,” one resident said. It was pointed out that while the dormitory facility is essential as many children are unable to make the daily journey to school because of the distance, it made no point sending them there to starve.
“Many of the children have exams and wanted to stay and use the library to study and so on by they had to go,” a PTA member told this newspaper.
Efforts to get a comment from the Region One regional administration office were futile as yesterday was a national holiday.
