For the past 15 years, the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship (PP) and the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) gov­ern­ments have spent bil­lions of tax­pay­ers’ dol­lars on fix­ing and build­ing new schools.

How­ev­er, some schools have been left in a state of dis­re­pair while up­grades to oth­ers have been in­com­plete, cul­mi­nat­ing last week with Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly stat­ing the chal­lenge schools in T&T face with re­pairs may stem from a lack of suf­fi­cient fund­ing de­spite a $5 bil­lion bud­get al­lo­cat­ed to her min­istry.

The min­is­ter was re­spond­ing to con­cerns about in­com­plete re­pairs and lack of readi­ness of a few schools at the start of the new aca­d­e­m­ic year last Mon­day.

Among the schools that were not in a state of readi­ness to be opened on Sep­tem­ber 2 were St George’s Col­lege, Mt Hope Sec­ondary, and Ma­yaro Sec­ondary.

The min­is­ter stat­ed that the cost of re­pairs sub­mit­ted by school prin­ci­pals through­out the coun­try to­talled al­most $2 bil­lion while the min­istry’s bud­get was $5 bil­lion. Af­ter pay­ing teach­ers’ salaries and staff, the min­istry is left with $150 mil­lion to spend on school re­pairs, which Gads­by-Dol­ly said was in­suf­fi­cient.

The min­istry would have need­ed $190 mil­lion for its crit­i­cal re­pair pro­gramme for the Ju­ly/Au­gust va­ca­tion but on­ly had a $20 mil­lion bud­get to work with. On the min­istry’s web­site, un­der the sub-head­ing Ed­u­ca­tion­al Fa­cil­i­ties Plan­ning and Pro­cure­ment Di­vi­sion, it list­ed key projects for schools. It iden­ti­fied the con­struc­tion of a pre-en­gi­neered build­ing at South­ern Cen­tral An­gli­can Pri­ma­ry. Five pri­ma­ry schools—Mal­abar, Chatham, and San Juan Boys’ and Girls’—and two EC­CE cen­tres in Waller­field and Egypt Oa­sis were list­ed for “con­struc­tion”.

An analy­sis by the Guardian Me­dia In­ves­tiga­tive Desk showed that over these 15 years, from 2010 to 2015, less than 50 per cent of the schools re­paired were along the East-West cor­ri­dor. More than 50 per cent of the schools re­paired were based in cen­tral and south Trinidad. How­ev­er, from 2016 to 2024, more schools in Cen­tral and South re­quired much-need­ed re­pairs. T&T has 208 EC­CE cen­tres and 453 pri­ma­ry and 125 sec­ondary schools, many of which are over 50 years old. Thir­teen of these schools are be­tween 120 and 130 years old.

Un­der Gopeesingh’s watch

When then-ed­u­ca­tion min­is­ter Dr Tim Gopeesingh as­sumed of­fice in 2010, he had a bud­getary al­lo­ca­tion of $85 mil­lion as he ex­pressed con­cerns about ren­o­va­tion works at Bar­rack­pore East and West Sec­ondary, El Do­ra­do West Sec­ondary, La Puer­ta Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry, Bel­mont Ju­nior Sec­ondary, Tacarigua Pres­by­ter­ian, Ra­mai Trace Hin­du, Pleas­antville Sec­ondary, St Au­gus­tine Sec­ondary and Cowen Hamil­ton Sec­ondary.

That same year, San Fer­nan­do Boys’ RC, Har­mo­ny Hall Pres­by­ter­ian and Cap-de-Ville Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry re­mained closed af­ter the East­er va­ca­tion due to ren­o­va­tions.

In 2011, the doors of Tu­na­puna An­gli­can and Bel­mont Boys’ RC re­mained closed when school re­opened af­ter the East­er va­ca­tion due to re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion work. Class­es at Mal­ick Sec­ondary al­so came to a grind­ing halt in 2012 as the T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) voiced dis­plea­sure of the school’s poor con­di­tions, while par­ents of pupils at­tend­ing Wood­brook Pres­by­ter­ian Pri­ma­ry de­mand­ed that their chil­dren be re­lo­cat­ed due to health and safe­ty is­sues.

The fol­low­ing year, then TTUTA vice pres­i­dent An­to­nia De Fre­itas stat­ed that 150 pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools re­quired re­pairs be­fore school re­opened in Sep­tem­ber.

She list­ed El Do­ra­do East Sec­ondary, Todd’s Road Pri­ma­ry, Tamana RC, Diego Mar­tin Girls RC and Cou­va West Sec­ondary as pri­or­i­ty cas­es.

Gopeesingh re­spond­ed to TTUTA, stat­ing that be­tween 2010 and Oc­to­ber 2012, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 650 school projects were un­der­tak­en, cost­ing $350 mil­lion. These projects ranged from roofs be­ing re­paired or re­placed to in­fra­struc­tur­al, plumb­ing, and elec­tri­cal up­grades, while the sew­er sys­tem in many of the schools had to be cor­rect­ed.

De­spite the huge re­pair bill, par­ents of stu­dents at­tend­ing Moru­ga Ro­man Catholic Pri­ma­ry School plead­ed for their 87-year-old school to be con­demned and re­built. In Au­gust 2013, Gopeesingh tipped his hat to the now-de­funct Ed­u­ca­tion Fa­cil­i­ties Com­pa­ny Ltd (EF­CL) for com­plet­ing 190 projects dur­ing the sum­mer va­ca­tion. By 2014, Gopeesingh boast­ed that 328 schools saw im­proved con­di­tions dur­ing the Ju­ly/Au­gust va­ca­tion, de­scrib­ing it as “his­toric”.

Among the schools that re­ceived a spruce-up were Tran­quil­li­ty Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry, St There­sa’s Girls’ RC, Ari­ma Hin­du, Cu­mu­to Pres­by­ter­ian, Mor­vant/Laven­tille Sec­ondary and Cou­va West Sec­ondary.

Two South-based schools—Princes Town Pres­by­ter­ian and Princes Town Sec­ondary—took longer than ex­pect­ed to open that year due to in­fra­struc­tur­al prob­lems and elec­tri­cal is­sues. In ear­ly 2015, par­ents of pupils at­tend­ing Broth­ers Road Pres­by­ter­ian School protest­ed for a new school.

Be­fore Gopeesingh ex­it­ed the min­istry in 2015, he dis­closed that $750 mil­lion was spent on school re­pairs.

Dur­ing Gar­cia’s tenure

When An­tho­ny Gar­cia was ap­point­ed Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter in Au­gust 2015, the par­ents of pupils of Siparia Union Pres­by­ter­ian Pri­ma­ry School protest­ed, con­demn­ing the min­istry for halt­ing work on their new school build­ing.

In 2017, Block B at Gas­par­il­lo Sec­ondary School was closed in­def­i­nite­ly for re­pairs, leav­ing 18 class­rooms out of use. That same year, frus­trat­ed par­ents of San Fer­nan­do West Sec­ondary bear­ing plac­ards de­mand­ed that the school sew­er be fixed.

TTUTA al­so called for bet­ter con­di­tions for teach­ers and pupils of Tran­quil­li­ty Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry. The next year, Gar­cia an­nounced that 160 pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools had been ear­marked for re­pairs. How­ev­er, he said, based on an as­sess­ment by the min­istry, on­ly 130 schools would be re­paired dur­ing the Ju­ly/Au­gust va­ca­tion, es­ti­mat­ed to cost $48 mil­lion.

The par­ents of pupils at­tend­ing Princes Town Pres­by­ter­ian Pri­ma­ry School took no com­fort in Gar­cia’s news and called for a new school.

In 2019, Gar­cia blew his trum­pet when he an­nounced that is­sues af­fect­ing Cou­va West Sec­ondary, Aranguez North Sec­ondary, War­renville Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry, Fish­ing Pond Pres­by­ter­ian and Wood­brook Sec­ondary would be ad­dressed be­fore the new school term in Sep­tem­ber.

These schools were among 194 projects that had been un­der­tak­en. At the start of the new school term in Jan­u­ary 2020, Gar­cia an­nounced that the min­istry had spent $85,117,000 re­pair­ing and out­fit­ting schools in the coun­try.

How­ev­er, Point Fortin East Sec­ondary was not on the min­istry’s list­ing for re­pairs, as they called on the min­is­ter to pro­vide an in­fra­struc­tur­al up­grade fol­low­ing a fire at the ad­min­is­tra­tive block caused by faulty elec­tri­cal work. Two months lat­er, schools had to be closed due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

Gads­by-Dol­ly

in the hot seat

Gar­cia was re­placed by Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly fol­low­ing the Au­gust 2020 gen­er­al elec­tion. In April 2022, un­der Gads­by-Dol­ly’s watch, schools re­opened their doors, and there was an avalanche of protests by par­ents of stu­dents for im­proved con­di­tions, in­fra­struc­tur­al de­vel­op­ments, new schools, or the build­ing of new schools to be fast-tracked for their chil­dren’s ed­u­ca­tion and fu­ture. Many of the schools that re­mained closed had fall­en in­to dis­re­pair.

The Gov­ern­ment had to grap­ple with a con­tract­ing econ­o­my and falling rev­enue. The protests, which start­ed in 2022, rolled in­to 2023 and con­tin­ued in 2024. Some schools where protests oc­curred were the Ra­mai Hin­du School, Holy Cross An­gli­can Pri­ma­ry, Gas­par­il­lo Sec­ondary, and Clax­ton Bay Ju­nior An­gli­can.

St Do­minic’s RC, San­ta Flo­ra Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry, Mafek­ing Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry, Mara­bel­la Boys’ and Girls’ An­gli­can, Palmiste Pri­ma­ry, Buenos Aires Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry, Holy Cross An­gli­can Pri­ma­ry, Rousil­lac Hin­du School. In 2022, the min­istry an­nounced that it had planned to spend $165 mil­lion of its $7.453 bil­lion al­lo­ca­tion for emer­gen­cies and oth­er re­pairs.

Last No­vem­ber, Gads­by-Dol­ly said re­pair and re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion work at 42 schools was ex­pect­ed to cost $411 mil­lion. She al­so re­vealed that be­tween 2021 and 2023 the Gov­ern­ment spent over $1 bil­lion on in­fra­struc­tur­al re­pairs.