– no word from authorities

Captain of the DeVeldt Berbice River community Laxley Lindie yesterday said that he has repeatedly informed Region Ten Education Officer Claude Johnson about the area’s primary school head teacher’s absence.

According to Lindie, Head teacher Abby Kertizous had been away from school for some six weeks prior to the end of the last school term and no official word had been given to parents about her prolonged absence.

Kertizous is not in the community and residents have been unable to make contact with her.

According to the captain, he had made repeated calls to Johnson’s office and spoke to him and other officials, including someone named Miss Benjamin, and not only reported the head teacher’s prolonged absence but also enquired about her return and he was never given an answer.

“I been calling all the time and is only push around we getting, nobody saying nothing,” he said yesterday via phone.

He also told Stabroek News yesterday that neither Kertizous nor the other teacher turned up for duty at the start of the new school term on Monday. As such the children are unable to attend classes even though the building is opened on a daily basis by the cleaner.

When Stabroek News had contacted Johnson on Wednesday he had said he could not say much on the situation as he was still new on the job. However, he did say that one of the teachers had visited the Linden office and was expected to return to the school shortly. When he was asked about the Kertizous’ continued absence from school and whether she was on medical leave, Johnson said he could not say and would have to investigate.

Stabroek News was unable to contact Johnson yesterday.

Up to yesterday none of the teachers had returned and Lindie along with other residents called on the authorities to look into the matter.

Meanwhile, Stabroek News was told that Kertizous had left with a set of the keys to the school’s building and outhouse. Residents said if the cleaner fails to turn up to clean the school then no one else can enter the school.

“I don’t know why this is. The teacher cannot feel comfortable and she doesn’t have access to the office nor the library and the children can’t read any books,” Lindie said yesterday.

He said this has also been brought to the attention of the regional officials and nothing is being done.

According to reports, when the four children in the area had to write their National Grade Six Assess-ment examination earlier this month, the head teacher contacted the cleaner by phone and instructed her to retrieve the keys from her (the head teacher’s) husband, who lives a short distance from the school. With the keys the cleaner then opened the school’s office from where she retrieved the children’s examination papers and later returned the keys to the teacher’s husband.

Residents feel that should have been the responsibility of the lone teacher who was on the job at the time and not the cleaner and a call was issued for the head teacher to hand over the keys to teacher.

Lindie said he has called a meeting with members of the community for next week so that the current crisis at the school could be discussed.

He said the children are the ones suffering and revealed that for some time some children were unable to attend classes because they had no boat.

The community is in the process of building a boat for the children and this will be completed this weekend. It will be powered by a resident’s motor engine.

The school has a population of about 20 students and Lindie said regardless of the small number the children should be given an opportunity to attend school.