While the Ministry of Education maintains that schools across the nation are opened and operating normally, parents at least in the city have taken the decision to keep their children at home during the wait for results from Monday’s polls.
When Stabroek News visited several schools in Georgetown and along the East Coast on Wednesday and Thursday, it was observed that a large percentage of students was not present in some schools, while none were present in some others.
This included both public and private schools. Popular private schools Green Acres, Mae’s and the New Guyana School were all closed, while Marian Academy reported an almost 50 % attendance rate.
St Margaret’s Primary and St Sidwell’s in Georgetown were practically closed as no students were present in school. The same was true for the Vryheid’s Lust Primary and LBI primary schools, while Beterverwagting Primary School had nine students out of 313 present and Enmore/Hope Primary School was closed, with a padlock on the gate, when this newspaper visited.
“Parents are not comfortable with the uncertainty, so have made the decision to keep their children at home at least for the week,” said a parent, whose child attends a primary school in Georgetown.
In secondary schools, it seemed that only those students who were scheduled to write Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations were present.
At Lodge Secondary, there were no students present on Thursday and only seven present on Wednesday. Tutorial High School had what was described as “a handful of student’s present,” while Richard Ishmael Secondary only had the 25 students scheduled to write CSEC present on Thursday.
A parent, whose son is writing the CSEC exams, told Stabroek News that if it weren’t for the exams she would’ve kept her child at home. “He’s writing CXC, so I have no reason to keep him home but it’s only because of CXC. This tension is making you uneasy. You can’t function at work because of how worried you are about your child. The child himself is uneasy, he wants to go home now, he’s stressed, under a lot of stress but he can’t go home yet,” she said.
She was at the time delivering lunch for her child. At Queen’s College, fifth form students who wrote CSEC English Literature on Wednesday told Stabroek News that they appeared to be the only students present at school. This, however, didn’t affect them as those who spoke expressed confidence in their safety.
Stabroek News was unable to reach anyone at the Ministry of Education for comment on the situation.
Meanwhile, teachers continue to show up for duty as the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) work to rule industrial action continues. The action, which is in its second week, is a reaction to the failure of the previous government to allocate money for a debunching exercise which would pay teachers with different level of experience different salaries.
The Ministry of Education is still to respond to the GTU’s action. Minister of Education Priya Manickchand on Monday May 4th had promised to release a press statement on the issue but has failed to do so.
