RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

The cen­tu­ry-old Clax­ton Bay Ju­nior An­gli­can School has been shut down be­cause of un­safe con­di­tions, leav­ing over 170 pupils dis­placed.

The clo­sure of the school was high­light­ed by for­mer UNC Min­is­ter De­vant Ma­haraj in a Face­book post yes­ter­day.

Ma­haraj said the school was or­dered closed with im­me­di­ate ef­fect and a rec­om­men­da­tion was made by the Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health Au­thor­i­ty in­spec­tion of­fi­cers on Sep­tem­ber 30, 2019 for it to be de­mol­ished.

“The ne­glect of the school by the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion con­tin­ues de­spite the state of the school. Over 170 stu­dents have been af­fect­ed by the no­tice to close the school pur­suant to the OSH Act Sec­tion 71 (1). This school which is over 100 years old was not on the list for ren­o­va­tions for the last pe­ri­od,” Ma­haraj wrote.

Dur­ing a meet­ing of par­ents and teach­ers at the An­gli­can church next to the con­demned build­ing, school of­fi­cials made clear the po­si­tion of the OS­HA.

“The chil­dren’s books and sta­tionery are still on the com­pound as the or­der to close was im­me­di­ate. Al­so, Stan­dard Two chil­dren had half of the re­quired fur­ni­ture at the be­gin­ning of the term and had to write on their laps,” Ma­haraj added.

For­mer Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Tim Gopeesingh chas­tised the gov­ern­ment for the state of the school.

“The im­pend­ing shut­down of Clax­ton Bay Ju­nior An­gli­can School is the lat­est graph­ic ex­am­ple of the heart­less ne­glect of our school chil­dren while the Row­ley Gov­ern­ment wastes mil­lions of dol­lars on cost­ly non-es­sen­tial mat­ters. The school has been in an ab­ject state of ne­glect and is still not on the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion’s pri­or­i­ty list for re­pairs. The dis­placed stu­dents would now have to be housed else­where, most like­ly at the near­by An­gli­can Church, which would be con­vert­ed in­to a makeshift school,” Gopeesingh added.

He said stu­dents from oth­er schools have been suf­fer­ing from us­ing cramped and im­pro­vised fa­cil­i­ties.

“In most cas­es, stu­dents are made to en­dure suf­fo­cat­ing con­di­tions, with­out req­ui­site class­room ameni­ties and with in­suf­fi­cient wash­room fa­cil­i­ties. Since 2015, more than 250 stu­dents of Ra­mai Trace Hin­du School have had to utilise the Hanu­man Mi­lan Mandir, a 45-minute dri­ve from their com­mu­ni­ty, be­cause the Gov­ern­ment has re­fused to com­plete the con­struc­tion of their school. The school was al­most 90 per cent com­plet­ed when the Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar Ad­min­is­tra­tion demit­ted of­fice,” Gopeesingh said.

He not­ed that stu­dents of Long­denville Pres­by­ter­ian Pri­ma­ry School have been dis­lodged twice over the past 17 years.

“They at­tend­ed class­es at Long­denville Pres­by­ter­ian Church and were then placed at Jern­ing­ham Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre. Princes Town Catholic Pri­ma­ry School was closed fol­low­ing a fire, and more than 300 stu­dents are re­ceiv­ing their ed­u­ca­tion at the near­by Catholic Church. Stu­dents of Princes Town Pres­by­ter­ian Pri­ma­ry School Num­ber 1 is shar­ing the premis­es with stu­dents of the Num­ber Two School, on an on-go­ing shift sys­tem. Both schools are bad­ly af­fect­ed by this ad hoc arrange­ment,” Gopeesingh said.

In ad­di­tion he said the Ari­ma Hin­du Pri­ma­ry School was closed as a re­sult of a se­cu­ri­ty is­sue and stu­dents con­tin­ue to re­ceive their class­es at a busi­ness es­tab­lish­ment.

“The Gov­ern­ment has re­fused to com­plete the con­struc­tion of the school. Stu­dents of Low­er Mor­vant Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School have been un­able to utilise their com­pound and were ac­com­mo­dat­ed at a near­by church. Rousil­lac Hin­du Pri­ma­ry School was in an ad­vanced state of re­con­struc­tion when the Row­ley Gov­ern­ment took of­fice and has since been aban­doned. Stu­dents have been at­tend­ing class­es at the vil­lage’s com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre,” Gopeesingh added.

Ef­forts to con­tact Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion An­tho­ny Gar­cia and Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion Dr Lovell Fran­cis proved fu­tile as calls to their cel­lu­lar phone went unan­swered.