Several parents of students enrolled in Grade Five of the Mae’s Primary School staged a protest outside the school yesterday, claiming that they paid for extra lessons that were not being delivered.
According to the parents, they paid the school an extra $20,000 to have the Grade Six teachers offer their children an extra hour of “advanced teaching” each day but they are not receiving the service.
One parent, Wayne Haley, told reporters that he is upset that despite being promised that the Grade Six teachers would be teaching the students from last Monday, the classes never occurred.
“You promised us that from Monday we would have an extra hour and you asked us for $20,000 more and say you are going to give us the Grade Six teachers but after we pay you don’t do it—that’s fraud,” he said.
The parents contend that the administration’s decision to prevent the Grade Six teachers from offering the classes stem from “contretemps” last month when those teachers objected to $20,000 being cut from their salaries.
“One week before the exams they told the teachers they were going to be paid $20,000 less from April 1st. How can you be so disrespectful to your own teachers? We are paying you $60,000 a term and now an extra $20,000 and you are cutting the teachers’ salary without an explanation?” a parent lamented.
Stabroek News has been informed by a source that following industrial action by the teachers and a meeting with parents, the Grade Six teachers were told that they would be paid their full salaries “for the month of April.”
“There is no information about what will happen afterwards,” the source said.
While the parents were outside the school from 9am, it wasn’t until 11am, when a parent began loudly blasting music from his car, that a representative from the school met with them.
A representative of the School, Stacy French, told Stabroek News that the decision made by the administration was final. “We have made a change in our structure at least until the end of this term. This decision is final. The decision is that until the end of the school term, the Grade Five teachers will continue to teach the Grade Five students,” she said. She added that a list of those parents who wish to be refunded has been compiled.
