Parents shut down two schools on the West Demerara and East Coast Demerara yesterday to protest poor conditions and lack of teachers.
Classes were disrupted at the Bagotville Primary School on the West Bank Demerara and at the Golden Grove Primary School on the East Coast Demerara as students joined in the protest.
“This is a terrible situation…we in this for years now”, Pansy Shepherd said as other parents related that two teachers and the headmistress teach 107 students at the Bagotville Primary School but many times the teachers are away owing to other commitments and the students are left unsupervised.
Efforts to contact Educa-tion Ministry officials for comment yesterday were futile. However, at the Golden Grove Primary School, Region Four Regional Education Officer, Baydewan Ghir Rambarran said that the region is sourcing a water pump for the school. Parents there locked the gates to the institution and said that for the past six weeks due to the water pump breaking down, there was no running water resulting in bathrooms being filthy. They vowed to continue their protest if there is no positive response from the Ministry. Rambarran, however, said that water is available to the school via standpipes and closing the school was not in the best interest of the children.
The Parent-Teacher Asso-ciation (PTA) of the Golden Grove Primary supported the protest there. “We waiting five weeks for a new pump”, Patricia Tixey, the head of the PTA, said. It was explained that the pump is needed to pump water to overhead tanks which supply water to the washrooms. Lack of water has resulted in the toilets becoming dirty and students and teachers have to fetch water from a drain across the school if they want to use the toilet.
When the matter was reported to Rambarran, the school was ordered to have “double sessions” and this has been ongoing for the past four weeks, Tixey said. Expressing their dissatisfaction with the time it is taking to acquire a pump, the parents began their protest at around 8am yesterday and when Stabroek News visited the school at around 11 am, only a few parents remained along with some teachers and children.
Parents said that the lack of water is unhealthy and they worry about their children’s health. The school’s cleaner, Senita Seecharran, showing her swollen hands, said that last week her skin “full up with fine boils and start scratching”. She said that she is forced to clean the toilets with water from the trench.
One parent said her daughter, who is in Grade Two, would come home and inform her that the toilets would become unusable by half day because there was no water to flush it. “If the Ministry don’t respond positively then we will continue to protest.
Every week they raising funds. Parents gah walk house to house begging for money. We need betterment for our children,” she said. As the parents spoke, this newspaper observed as a teacher headed to the trench with a bucket. Regina Donnes said that she could not bear it any more and had to use the toilet. “This thing is really hard,” she commented.
Disrupting
Donnes said that when a student has to go to the washroom, the child would have to collect a bucket and go across the road to dip water. This is disrupting classes. Donnes said that the teachers “push as much as we can” now that double sessions are in place to ensure that the students are taught what is required in the syllabus.
While the headmistress was not at school yesterday, Stabroek News was told that she had written to the regional education department on the matter.
When contacted, Rambarran acknowledged that his office is in receipt of the complaints and had forwarded a report to the Regional Executive Officer. It was found that the school’s compression pump was not repairable and the region is in the process of sourcing this, he said. “Closing the building is not in the best interest of the children so we had an arrangement where the children will work a double session,” he explained.
Rambarran was adamant that water is accessible to the school via stand pipes. “The bottom line is that water is accessible in the compound. The issue is the access of the pump.”
Rambarran also said that he was unaware of the students and teachers having to dip water from a trench. “That shouldn’t have happened…it’s something I have to start looking into and see what the fault is”, he said. Attempts to get a comment from the Regional Executive Officer and Education Minister were futile.
Parents say they will continue their protest and threatened to lock the gates to the school today if they do not get a prompt reply.
Unsupervised
Meanwhile, at Bagotville, the gates were locked. Frustrated parents said that on many occasions, their children are left unsupervised and are sent home at mid-day since there is no one to there to teach them. One of the teachers is absent due to classes at the university; the other is there infrequently while the headmistress is away in the afternoon due to work she has to do at the regional administration, parents related.
They said that there are times when the children have been left with the cleaner who tries her best to pacify them in the interim. The school has 107 students. Many of the parents, pointing out that they are single-parents, expressed worry about their children playing on the road or at the koker during the afternoon hours.
Shepherd said that promises were made for the school to be rebuilt by this year but so far nothing has been done. She opined that one move would be to merge the school with another so that the children would be taught regularly. She pointed out that the results for the school have been poor over the years and attributed this to the lack of teaching.
Rosanne, another parent said that she volunteers every day at the school. She related that there were times when the pipes were not working and she spent money to have them repaired. Recently, she said, she contacted the Neighbourhood Democratic Council’s office to solicit help in weeding the school’s compound which is overgrown with grass. According to her, when contacted a senior regional official told her, “you must walk house to house and raise funds or ask the other parents to weed the yard.”
Meantime, the parents also pointed out that the school suffers from a lack of water and non-functioning washrooms. The children are forced to go to the neighbours to get water or dip water from a small reservoir opposite their school. This means that they have to cross the busy public road which does not have a pedestrian crossing. The washrooms have reportedly not been working since last term.
The lack of a play area for the children is another concern. The parents also said that snakes have been found in the compound. “Why it can’t get look after?” Olivia David asked. “It isn’t big but many of the best have come out of here.”
Another concern is that a man of unsound mind usually spends his time in the school’s compound. Parents want him removed. They said that several times he indecently exposed himself to the children. “It’s just a lot of promises,” one parent said. While transferring their children to another school is an option, the increased cost also serves as an impediment. The head teacher declined to comment when approached.
By Tiffny Rhodius and Candace Phillips
