RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

School re­opened yes­ter­day, but not for the pupils from the Caratal Sa­cred Heart RC School in Gas­par­il­lo.

Rather than re­turn­ing to their class­rooms, the pupils joined their par­ents in protest, af­ter the road lead­ing to the school sank fur­ther due to a land­slip.

Hold­ing plac­ards and wear­ing their school uni­forms, the pupils begged the Gov­ern­ment to fix their roads so they can re­turn to class­es.

Pres­i­dent of the school’s Par­ent Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion, Cory Woods, said on both sides of the road, through Par­force Road and Caratal Road, ac­cess had been cut off af­ter the roads slipped dan­ger­ous­ly.

“For the longest while we try­ing to get this road in or­der. We know times are hard but our chil­dren need their ed­u­ca­tion. This is Tabaquite, but whether this is an Op­po­si­tion area or not, doesn’t mat­ter, our chil­dren need their ed­u­ca­tion,” Woods said.

He said all over Gas­par­il­lo, road­works were con­tin­u­ing but not so for their com­mu­ni­ty.

“Why are you fight­ing the road? It is not hard to fix this road. In cer­tain places in Gas­par­il­lo, grounds fix, lights fix, roads fix and no­body liv­ing there but here, we suf­fer­ing. The chil­dren can­not reach school whether you pass through Par­force or through the side. They de­lib­er­ate­ly not fix­ing it. Every­body here pays tax and we want to know why our road is not be­ing fixed?” he said.

An­oth­er res­i­dent, Ro­hit Nand­lal, said the de­plorable roads were af­fect­ing their qual­i­ty of life

“This is more than bad roads. It is now a ques­tion of health and safe­ty. We have no garbage dis­pos­al be­cause the garbage trucks are not com­ing here with­in a one-mile ra­dius. There is no am­bu­lance ser­vice, no se­cu­ri­ty ser­vices and even po­lice can­not nav­i­gate,” he claimed.

Nand­lal said Kan­chan Hill is par­tic­u­lar­ly dan­ger­ous and on­ly high ve­hi­cles are able to pass.

Mean­while, Ada Layne, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion rep­re­sen­ta­tive, said the road had wors­ened since school closed last De­cem­ber.

“The road is slip­ping so bad­ly. Right be­fore the school closed, two teach­ers’ cars slipped (off the road) and peo­ple had to push the cars up the hill,” she said.

Layne said pupils were al­so in dan­ger.

“Ma­jor­i­ty of the stu­dents can­not make it to school be­cause of the road con­di­tions. With the land­slips, chil­dren walk and this is a dan­ger be­cause if a car slips and a car is pass­ing, the child has nowhere to go,” she said.

Par­ent Runako Mor­ris said the roads were bad and pri­or­i­ty must be giv­en to fix­ing the Par­force and Caratal Road, not­ing that busi­ness was be­ing ham­pered.

When con­tact­ed on the is­sue yes­ter­day, Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly told CNC3 news that the Min­istry of Works would have the ap­pro­pri­ate de­tails as it re­lates to the road­works.

How­ev­er, when con­tact­ed, Works Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan said the roads which lead to the school fell un­der the purview of the Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion. He said the Bonne Aven­ture Road is the on­ly road in the area which fell un­der the Works Min­istry, not­ing that the lone land­slip along that road has al­ready been sent for ten­der and a con­tract award­ed.

How­ev­er, chair­man of the CT­TRC, Hen­ry Awong, said the cor­po­ra­tion did not have suf­fi­cient funds to re­pair the roads. He ex­pressed hope that the roads will be fixed un­der the Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment Sec­ondary Road Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Com­pa­ny (SR­RC).