A re­newed call for Gov­ern­ment to re­sume and com­plete work on the Re­form Hin­du School and Re­form EC­CE Cen­tre came to­day, from mem­bers of the school’s PTA, who were joined by their lo­cal gov­ern­ment coun­cil­lor in a protest demon­stra­tion.

Coun­cil­lor for Re­form / Man­a­ham­bre, Chris Ar­shad Ho­sein, along with par­ents, did a walk-through of the premis­es. They are an­gry that the work on the struc­tures re­mains in­com­plete, and that they have been aban­doned and are now over­grown with vines and bush­es, in ad­di­tion to be­ing loot­ed and van­dal­ized.

Speak­ing to mem­bers of the me­dia at the event, Coun­cil­lor Ho­sein stat­ed that there is no space in the ex­ist­ing school for so­cial dis­tanc­ing as the Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion in­di­cat­ed would be the case when school re-opens in Sep­tem­ber. He not­ed that the chil­dren re­main in an en­vi­ron­ment that is un­com­fort­able and not con­ducive to learn­ing.

“We are call­ing on the out­go­ing Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion and MP for Ari­ma, Mr An­tho­ny Gar­cia, to re­sume work on the new Re­form Hin­du School,” he said. “We keep hear­ing about the im­por­tance of ed­u­ca­tion, and I be­lieve it is so im­por­tant for a gov­ern­ment to in­vest in their cit­i­zens from a young age. That starts with bet­ter schools that can give our chil­dren a fight­ing chance in this world."

"Ed­u­ca­tion is the tick­et out of pover­ty. In T&T, jobs and ed­u­ca­tion will erad­i­cate the need for jails and in­car­cer­a­tion. How­ev­er, this gov­ern­ment’s track record when it comes to ed­u­ca­tion leaves much to be de­sired,” he added.

Mean­while, pres­i­dent of the PTA of the Re­form Hin­du School, Mrs. Sh­eryl-Ann Ram­di­al al­so spoke with mem­bers of the me­dia at the protest and out­lined the con­cerns of the par­ents.

She stat­ed that the con­di­tions at the ex­ist­ing school are un­ac­cept­able and the stu­dents have been suf­fer­ing for far too long.