(Trinidad Express) Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh says with more than a 100 schools in a state of disrepair, it is better to rebuild than to renovate.
Last week the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) said teachers have the right to walk out if their schools do not meet the provisions laid out by the Occupational Health and Safety Act as more than 100 schools had not been repaired during the August vacation.
TTUTA has also announced a mass demonstration and rally for September 7 from 9 a.m. in front of the Twin Towers, Port of Spain.
Speaking to reporters following the opening of the newly-constructed St Barbara’s Spiritual Shouter Baptist Primary School, Maloney yesterday, Gopeesingh said they conducted repairs based on priority and some schools can have work done during the year.
“TTUTA needs to look at itself, if they want to make a comment it must be a constructive comment in terms of what the reality is and the reality is that we have done hundreds of schools, the reality is as well that you have 122 primary schools in the country that are more than 100 years old and there are 250 to 350 that are more than 50 years old, so doesn’t it make sense to spend more than TT$1 million to repair a roof and a floor of a school rather than spending TT$5 million or TT$6 million and rebuilding the entire school, so we are in a process of rebuilding close to 100 primary schools, hopefully before we finish this first term of office by 2015,” he said.
Gopeesingh added that before they gave out contracts for construction or renovation works, they had to ensure that there was proper accountability.
Speaking on CCN TV6’s Morning Edition programme yesterday, the Minister added that it was unacceptable for any school to remain closed, but when “you have 900 schools which you have to maintain, inevitably some will have some degree of problem”.
Questioned by the Express regarding reports by parents who called in to complain that several schools were closed yesterday, Gopeesingh said:
“I don’t know whether there are a lot of complaints about a lot of schools…we have 900 schools, we had emergency calls over the weekend for some schools to be done and EFCL (Education Facilities Company Limited) was there to do the emergency work for most of them,” he said.
However, in a later statement issued by the Ministry’s communications department, it stated that eight schools out of more than 900 government and government-assisted “faced difficulties” yesterday.
The statement further indicated that one such school was Malick Secondary School, where a fire damaged the electrical system.
“Currently, the Ministry continues to work with T&TEC to restore the power supply to this school.”
The statement added that teachers walked off the job at Palo Seco Secondary School “despite the air quality and fungus-testing conducted by CARIRI” showed that it was safe.
The statement also said there were a few cases where “principals took the unilateral decision to postpone for one day the reopening of school, despite the fact that repair works were completed”.
The Express was informed that Morvant Anglican Primary School, Siparia Presbyterian Primary School and St Gabriel’s RC School were closed yesterday.
Anthony Garcia, Councilor for Malabar North, added that Malabar Government Primary School also failed to open yesterday due to a number of issues, ranging from no electricity to poor ventilation.
Garcia added that the principal met with the parents and explained why the school could not be opened, but the residents have been pleading with him to do something.
“This school was constructed since 1981 as a temporary structure; in fact, it was constructed using wooden panels and was described as a demountable structure. Several promises have been made for a new school and up to now nothing has happened.
“It is really distressing…all the promises that a new school will be delivered and nothing has been done and the residents feel that they are being neglected,” he said.
In an interview with TV6 yesterday, TTUTA first vice-president Davanand Sinanan said he believed Government’s failure stemmed from its failure to pay contractors on time.
Meanwhile, Arima New Government Primary School was one of two newly-opened schools yesterday, the other is St Barbara’s.
According to Gopeesingh, the Arima School cost TT$40,383,271.39 to construct.
“The first set of students has been transferred, and the remaining transfer will occur over the next two days,” he said.
