Jan­nelle Bernard

Se­nior Re­porter

jan­nelle.bernard@cnc3.co.tt

Par­ents of stu­dents at­tend­ing Bel­mont Sec­ondary School are ex­press­ing their dis­plea­sure with what they say are de­plorable con­di­tions at the in­sti­tu­tion.

A rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Par­ent-Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (PTA), Veronique Lutch­man, told Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day that there were sev­er­al health and safe­ty is­sues af­fect­ing stu­dents as well as teach­ers.

She added that the sit­u­a­tion was dire and need­ed im­me­di­ate at­ten­tion. “We have is­sues start­ing from open elec­tri­cal pan­els with ex­posed wires. We have a lot of grassy ar­eas in our school that need to be up­kept. We have filth on the walls, we have rat drop­pings, and we have bat drop­pings. There are a lot of ver­min com­ing from the grass­es, a lot of dan­ger­ous ver­min, snakes, cen­tipedes.”

In re­sponse to these claims, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly told Guardian Me­dia that pub­lic health of­fi­cials vis­it­ed the school and the drop­pings seen were con­firmed to be lizard drop­pings. She said there was no ro­dent in­fes­ta­tion at the school.

The PTA al­so claimed that events in­te­gral to the so­cial fab­ric of the school, such as the school’s bazaar and a thanks­giv­ing ser­vice, which the par­ents said serve to bring har­mo­ny amongst the school’s pop­u­la­tion, have been dis­con­tin­ued by the school’s cur­rent ad­min­is­tra­tion.

PTA pres­i­dent Shur­lan­da Mal­colm said, “The school is no longer a com­mu­ni­ty school; the chil­dren are feel­ing de­spon­dent, teach­ers are feel­ing de­spon­dent, and par­ents are look­ing to get their chil­dren trans­ferred out of what once was a home, a haven in the Bel­mont com­mu­ni­ty.”

In re­sponse to this, the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter said the prin­ci­pal did not ap­prove a PTA fundrais­er due to a ques­tion about the prop­er ac­count­abil­i­ty of funds from pre­vi­ous fundrais­ers. The PTA dis­put­ed this claim, and rep­re­sen­ta­tives are hope­ful there will be some res­o­lu­tion be­fore the start of the new school term in Jan­u­ary.