Dear Editor,
No one can replace a child who died. No one can erase the helpless horror of parents who live the final terrified moments of their children’s lives as the fire roasts and smokes them to death. No number of plane rides is enough or visits of persons who come to see how you are bearing up, what your faces look like, if tears roll down, if siblings sob, if fathers are tight-lipped and refusing to give way to bellowing their loss, if grandparents shrink with the pain of grief. When all the expressions of grief are published and flags are flown at respectful levels and officials have graced humble people with their handshakes and solemn faces, what then?
Modernization of the education system must have as an overriding priority, the safety of students. This does not happen by itself. It is the first duty of each administrator and of education officials. It has to be ordered. It has to be monitored. It has to be insisted upon on pain of immediate disciplinary action. In my school, our evacuation drill emptied the school of all personnel, some 500 persons in approximately five minutes. Once an alarm was given, by pre-arrangement, a member of staff grabbed the staff attendance register, form teachers took up the class registers, guards with their keys rushed from room to room to check that all were out, safety officers directed lines to the muster point, I came last as Principal and I carried the school log and the key to my vault. No one was allowed to stop for property, books, bags etc. Form teachers did a headcount at muster point to make sure all students in attendance were out of the building. The fire officers and police did the checking of buildings for safety.
In preparation for a safety crisis all vehicles did daily reverse parking and no one was allowed to park on the roundabout in front of the entrance to the administration building. This left this passageway free for the Fire Brigade and other officials. We also had our own very large water storage tanks and large gauge water hoses. All personnel including cafeteria personnel had to respond to an evacuation drill. The guards always had keys for various areas in the school. Previous to the drill, the Fire Officers from the Brigade would have inspected the school to advise on fire hazards and all fire extinguishers would have been checked. Further, an evacuation plan was displayed on the office wall of the safety officers. The school itself had clearly marked escape routes, arrows in colour pointing the way out. Students would follow the arrows to safety. Our public address system worked for public announcements. The above only describes in part what was done to be OSH compliant.
Safety requires serious and consistent attention, and immediate attention. The first duty of the Principal is safety. Curriculum delivery is second, or so it is where I am. I looked for vigorous comment from the teachers’ union. Vigorous comment does not equate with blame. Teachers are academics who can think and formulate proposals. Now is the time to help the Ministry of Education to become what it needs to become, in a modernization exercise which implements best practices. Now is the time to end understaffing. Now is the time to ensure adequate adult supervision for dormitories. Now is the time to insist that all Fire Brigades in proximity to schools be upgraded to save multiple lives when these are threatened in schools. Now is the time to stop wringing of hands and produce a drawn model of what a teacher’s house in the interior should look like and what its loading schedule should be. Now is the time to insist on infrastructure that boosts modernization. Now is the time to institute a courier system to deliver salaries and circulars to far flung places. Now is the time to be unafraid and to ensure that the 19 lives lost justify concerted and very visible change. If this does not happen then an expression of sympathy was simply playing to an audience.
So a fire has been lit. Let it be the fire of change. Fear of mistakes can retard change. Small minds can retard change. We need a Presidential order and I am quite certain, from what I have read of the President, that he has all the courage and vision necessary to ordering action. This is the time for dialogue with the parents of those lost through a failure of the system to protect their lives. Let a permanent memorial be raised to them. Offer compensation in cash certainly, and also in kind. The latter can include a memorial wall and an annual memorial service. There are many ways to remember. And take interfering power out of the hands of ‘officials’ who do not know their assets from their elbows about education and interfere and interfere and pull rank to overawe educators. An educator is not a government clerk. Know the difference. Micro-managing schools and educators is disgusting and annoying and fosters rudeness. Education officials who believe that frightening staff is management are simply incompetent and should consider a career change. This fire can help to define a new strategy to take schools forward and to produce an inspired and appreciated teaching service, and a Ministry of Education which merits national praise.
No one can say that Guyana does not have the money to implement immediate and expensive change initiatives. No excuses! So I say!
Sincerely,
Gabriella Rodriguez
