Following her statement that the “relevant parties” were made aware of the findings from the Ministry of Education-commissioned report on state dormitories, Education Minister Priya Manickchand yesterday remained mum on who those persons were and when pressed said that the names would be made public at a later date.
According to the Minister, given that President Irfaan Ali is set to announce that a Commis-sion of Inquiry into the Mahdia fire that claimed the lives of 20 children would be undertaken, the “relevant parties” would be identified in those findings.
In the face of criticisms that the Ministry of Education “dropped the ball” in acting on the May 2022 report it commissioned, which had highlighted a range of deficiencies at all 24 dorms throughout the country – including poor fire safety procedures – Manickchand was yesterday asked by Stabroek News if she had shared the report with her Cabinet colleagues.
“Sensational headlines might work for your readership. I have a bigger job. While I like to see my face in the paper, how is this helping the children? Let us, I want to be careful with stopping the speculation. Like I said, at that Commission of Inquiry, we will do a full examination of what are some of the systems that can work,” the Minister responded at an event for the signing of contracts for rebuilding of the Christ Church Secondary School.
Neither Manickchand nor the government had disclosed the existence of the report in the aftermath of the May 21 fire at Mahdia. The findings were however reported in the June 5th edition of Stabroek News after the newspaper obtained the report.
Considering the importance of the report, Manickchand was asked whether she had sought to discuss it at Cabinet since ministers would have to collectively brainstorm on financing and what the respective ministries would have to do, the minister repeated what she had earlier said
“It was shared with the relevant parties that have responsibilities for the dorms,” she asserted.
“We will get all of that once the Commission of inquiry is completed. If we are going to try it here we might as well not bother with the Presidential announcement that we will have a commission of inquiry. Except, that when you have a little sound bite here and somebody runs with it. I have seen so much speculation from where the dorm mother was to what was the material on the roof, all of it is wrong,” she added.
Told that it was the overall report response and dissemination of the findings that were being enquired about by Stabroek News, the Minister stressed, “It was shared with the relevant authorities and at a later stage that will be examined.”
Asked for clarity on if she meant that the names of the respective persons that the report was shared with would be provided, Manickchand answered in the affirmative. “Yes,” she said.
Manickchand has fended off criticism that her ministry had failed to implement recommendations on the myriad problems which included fire safety and behavioural issues among those attending the dorm.
Pressed on the lack of the implementation of the recommendations, she told Stabroek News on Monday that her ministry does not have the authority to conduct maintenance, infrastructural repairs and solicit supply of goods and services for the dorms and shared similar views as she did yesterday.
This responsibility Stabroek News was told, falls with the Regional Democratic Councils for schools and dormitories outside of Georgetown.
“All relevant agencies were given a copy of the report. It was shared with the relevant agencies for the recommendations to be implemented,” Manickchand had stressed.
The Ministry of Education (MoE), this newspaper learnt, has faced severe criticism following the Stabroek News report on Monday entitled “UNICEF review of school dorms last year highlighted myriad deficiencies”, for failing to have the recommendations for the dormitories implemented. However, Manickchand on Monday said that speculation at this time is not helpful in response to the backlash.
“It is true that the Ministry of Education commissioned the report because we wanted to learn what could be done to improve all dorms in the country…” Manickchand underscored. Stabroek News also learnt that the review of dormitory living is one of several reports commissioned by the Ministry after Manickchand assumed office in 2020. It is unclear whether President Ali was aware of the UNICEF report as he has made no reference to it.
Comprehensive review
Manickchand stated that the commission of inquiry into the Mahdia Secondary School dormitory is expected to give a comprehensive review of the failings to implement critical recommendations.
Yesterday she echoed the same position. Until that report is completed, she pointed out, she will not pronounce on either the fire or the recommendations in the MoE report.
“I think speculation, while understandable, is not useful to any of the victims of that fire or students across this country. It can be harmful. The president has indicated that a COI will come into being and I believe that is the place for us to properly examine the systems that exist currently and the structures and the various facilities that exist, have existed, exists throughout the history of this country; intermixed and juxtaposed against our culture in what we have in our own homes and public buildings and how we can move forward safely. I don’t want to contribute to the speculation,” she said.
The Minister of Education also wanted to make clear that it was her ministry that commissioned the study.
“First of all it was not a UNICEF Report. There is nothing like a UNICEF report. I thought that was a misnomer by the Stabroek News. I have expressed to them that it was a Ministry of Education-commissioned Report that was facilitated by UNICEF. If you know how the UN bodies work, nobody can go into any school, let alone all the dorm schools without us asking for that. It was a MoE-commissioned report,” she said
She also pointed out that the Ministry of Education plays a limited role in the administration of schools in the regions.
“The way the governance structure is set up, in accordance with the constitution and other laws, the MOE centrally has responsibility for Georgetown. Whether a school in Georgetown gets chalk or has their stairway fixed is [the responsibility] central ministry. Every other school in the regions, both goods and services as well as maintenance of the facilities, management of the facilities, are done by the regional governments of the country. The local government ministry, done by individual regional democratic councils. Done by who are generally elected people, so we have to understand that distinction when speaking,” she contended.
“If we commissioned the report, knowing fully well that we have no responsibility, no jurisdiction in the local government’s structure or in those facilities, I think you can surmise two clear things. One, is that we wanted to learn what were some of the weaknesses and gaps in the various facilities that existed forever, including under the APNU who now have conversations among these issues which structures existed for a while. We wanted to learn what those problems were so that we could fix them. And two, that if I knew from the beginning that I couldn’t fix them, that I would share it whomever it needed to go to and we are maintaining that we did. And that there has been some movement on that. In the 2023 budget there are provisions for five dorms in regions 1, 7, and 9 to be fixed. And the procurement process for that is happening as we speak. We can’t just go out and pick a man and say fix this dorm at a cost. We have to do what the Act says we must do, the Procurement Act which is to go public and ask people to come in at their best rate. That process is happening now as we speak,” she added.
Noted too by the Minister was that in hindsight, questions are always many on what could have been done such as closing some of the dorms to have them fixed. However, that suggestion was never made given that global studies highlighted the significant negative effect COVID-19 school closures have had on learning losses.
“Here is what we face in the world, we take students out of school in those communities and by those I mean that have homes that are far from each other and far from a centre, getting them into school is a really hard thing. So the world said after the 2020 COVID closure, the world was certain that two things we would suffer, two things that were certain, all the studies showed early school leaving and learning loss. Having come out of that areas where we are experiencing both, with the rest of the world, it was to say close as we fix was a hard thing for us to say educationally because we will lose students to the system, to education. I can tell you that certain measures are taken across dorms and schools right now that should make them a little safer,” she reasoned.
“At the end of the day you have human beings manning systems and you can have a perfect system with a human being who doesn’t execute perfectly. That is not to say that I am not speaking on any specific issue. So we have to do it together. Infrastructurally as well as the human beings who manage those faciltiies,” she added.
For the government here, it would be folly to see the information on the effects of keeping the students away from school and then close the dorms in the middle of the term, the minister reasoned.
“We had a consideration that we had to have which was given the worldwide studies done by the World Bank; done by the United Nations; done by countries around the world…that said once you keep students out of school you would end up with a large number of dropouts. That closing any school or any facility that will always be a last resort for us,” she explained.
