Latest update April 29th, 2024 3:41 AM
Sep 20, 2013 News
“They giving the Trinidadians 10,000 acres of land, but them can’t find one acre fuh build a school fuh we children” -Parents
It was confusion at the St. Agnes Primary School yesterday, as parents were blocked from entering the building to pick up their children.
Kaieteur News understands that this situation was initiated after parents got word that Education officials were meeting with staffers at the school and turned up demanding an audience with them.
This privilege was denied, prompting the parents to become irate. The police were called in and the gate was locked.
Enraged parents and guardians hurled criticisms at Ministry of Education Officials who were inside, as they stood at the school’s entrance in the hot sun.
“Is lunch time, and they got dem children in deh hungry, hungry. I don’t understand why these police officers deh at the gate. Let us go in and get our children. We ain’t come fuh fight nobody,” a woman whose three children attend the school, said.
As the commotion was ongoing outside, students were seen sticking their hands out of the window, as they chanted the words “we want go home, we want go home.”
The students were subsequently released one by one sometime after 14:00hrs, as police officers closely manned the gate to ensure that parents did not go inside.
As they came out one after the other, some of the children, evidently disturbed, were seen crying.
“This ain’t right wah they doing…dem scaring de children. Is nah big mules deh got in deh, is lil children. And the people at the gate operating like is Camp Street jail we guh to. We just come fuh collect we children, so me ain’t see the need to mek they feel suh frustrated and frightened,” one mother said.
While there were those who went to the school’s location just to pick up their children, there were others who showed up to show support for the parents and voice their disapproval of the Education Ministry’s intention to relocate some students to the St. Angela’s Primary School which is right next door, and St. Ambrose Primary, a few blocks away.
In a recent media release, Education Minister, Priya Manickchand, explained that this would only be a temporary solution until the government constructs six additional classrooms for the students of St. Agnes Primary.
“I don’t know if we ain’t clear enough, but we ain’t want dem ship we children like packages. We want a new school for them. These children deserve a new school; they future in jeopardy. Wha is so hard about building a new school for them?” asked one father.
He was heard shouting the words- “they giving the Trinidadian’s 10,000 acres of land, but them can’t find one acre fuh build a school fuh we children. Plus they spending millions fuh rent St. Rose’s High School building.”
The call for a new school building for St. Agnes Primary is nothing new, but ever since the commencement of the new school year earlier this month, parents and students have been consistently pressing for this to become a reality.
This is because of an ongoing dispute between that school and the administration of the adjoining St Rose’s High over space. The two schools share a large compound on Church Street, Cummingsburg, Georgetown.
Parents continue to complain that their children are continuously being “bullied” by those of St. Rose’s High School for their classrooms and additional space.
Kaieteur News understands that the high school has been cramped for space for some time now because students of the St. Agnes Primary are housed in an area that St. Rose’s needs for its Sixth Form class.
In addition to the space constraints and the dilapidated state of the building, both parents and children are concerned about sanitation.
During two protests prior to yesterday’s fiasco, parents, inclusive of members of the Parent Teachers’ Association (PTA) lamented that their children would complain of serious “nastiness” at the school.
Parents had told Kaieteur News that their children would relate seeing rats swimming in stagnant sewage in the yard and beneath the floor boards.
Of all their grievances, parents of Grade Six students are most annoyed at the fact that the continuous feud is a major distraction to those preparing to sit the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) in a few months.
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