Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter An­tho­ny Gar­cia has iden­ti­fied three lo­ca­tions to re­lo­cate the stu­dents of the Ari­ma Hin­du Pri­ma­ry School, one of which can cost the gov­ern­ment as much as $250,000 a month.

On Mon­day, of­fi­cials of the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry along with the teach­ers and par­ents of stu­dents who at­tend the school held a meet­ing to dis­cuss the fu­ture of the in­sti­tu­tion.

Since May 9, stu­dents and teach­ers have stayed away from class­es fol­low­ing the mur­der of Do­minic Almerales and the shoot­ing of his wife De­siree Sparkle Layne, which oc­curred on Tem­ple Street in close prox­im­i­ty to the school.

At the time of the in­ci­dent, stu­dents were ush­ered in­side and locked in out of fear for their safe­ty. In the en­su­ing days, there had been a spike in crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty. Prin­ci­pal Ro­ma To­ta-Ma­haraj said the lone teacher who was present at the time re­mains trau­ma­tised.

There had been calls for the school to be re­lo­cat­ed. Speak­ing at the meet­ing, Gar­cia said his Min­istry did not or­der the clo­sure of the school and no plans were made to have the stu­dents housed at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go in O’Meara.

He ex­plained that the Ari­ma Hin­du School was owned and run by the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha (SDMS) and noth­ing could be done with­out its ap­proval. He, how­ev­er, said the Min­istry has been ex­am­in­ing sev­er­al op­tions “where we can en­sure that your chil­dren will be prop­er­ly housed in an en­vi­ron­ment that is con­ducive to ed­u­ca­tion.” Two of the choic­es are to house the stu­dents at the Ari­ma New Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry or the Ari­ma West Pri­ma­ry Schools. The third, the Min­is­ter ex­plained, in­volved erect­ing an air-con­di­tioned tent on a va­cant lot of land in Ari­ma for the stu­dents. The Min­is­ter said a sim­i­lar struc­ture has been in use at the To­co Sec­ondary School and at Holy Name Con­vent. But he said there was one is­sue, the pro­hib­i­tive cost.

“The on­ly prob­lem, it is very ex­pen­sive and can cost $250,000 a month”, he said. The Min­is­ter said the con­struc­tion of a new school in Ari­ma has had some “pit­falls” but he said those is­sues could be re­solved.

In the mean­time, Act­ing Su­per­in­ten­dent of the Ari­ma Po­lice Sta­tion Neil Bran­don-John said since the up­surge in vi­o­lence on Tem­ple Street the Po­lice Ser­vice has “worked as­sid­u­ous­ly to bring some sem­blance of or­der to the area.”