(Trinidad Express) After three-years of assurances by the Ministry of Education that the Ramai Trace Hindu School is one of the Ministry’s priority project, the school, which is 90 per cent complete, remains abandoned, with overgrown bush choking the premises.
And while they wait, residents have entered the property to clear the bushes and maintain the facility.
In a letter to the editor, Joe Sirju, a retired school principal made an appeal for the school’s completion.
Currently, pupils and staff occupy the overcrowded Hanuman Milan Mandir in Penal Rock Road.
Some pupils are forced to make a 45-minute journey leaving home before 6:30 a.m. each day.
The school has over 270 pupils and many parents have made the decision to have their children transferred out of the school.
In his letter, Sirju wrote: “All my life, I have been an educator. I retired in 2003 as Principal of Princes Town Senior Comprehensive School. I was given the Public Service medal of merit (gold) in 2010 for my achievement in Education.
I always believed that a child ought to have a proper place to study and be taught. Since, 2015, the children of the above school attend a temple for their classes.
The place is overcrowded; there are no proper toilets for so many children. If you were to visit the temple, tears will come to your eyes. The children suffer on a daily basis. They begin their journey early in the morning and reach home around 6pm. The parents have to readjust to accommodating their children. I visited the temple and my heart goes out to these children. The Ramai Trace Hindu School is 90 per cent complete”.
Sirju made a public appeal to the Ministry of Education to have to school ready for students who are suffering each day at their present location.
In response, Minister of State in the Ministry of Education Dr Lovell Francis said the school remains one of the Ministry’s priority schools that will be addressed this year.
Francis declined to give a date of when the school will be opened.
Construction on the school began in September 2014 and stopped a year later.
Parents protested outside Parliament in Port of Spain in 2016 to highlight their concerns.
