JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Friday, January 31, 2025

Protest at Marabella Anglican for new school

by

Sascha Wilson
2197 days ago
20190125
Parents and students of the Marabella Boys’ and Girls’ Anglican schools protest over the school conditions yesterday.

Parents and students of the Marabella Boys’ and Girls’ Anglican schools protest over the school conditions yesterday.

RISHI RAGOONATH

A pi­geon in­fes­ta­tion, bird drop­pings on desks, mal­func­tion­ing toi­lets and a leak­ing roof are among the woes fac­ing pupils of the Mara­bel­la An­gli­can Boys and Girls Schools.

The chil­dren were re­lo­cat­ed from their schools five years ago with a promise that a new school would be con­struct­ed and com­plet­ed with­in ten months. Yes­ter­day, a group of par­ents staged a plac­ard demon­stra­tion along the main road in Mara­bel­la call­ing for the com­ple­tion of the school.

PTA mem­ber Al­lan Camp­bell said con­struc­tion start­ed in late 2014 but stopped mid-2015 be­cause of an is­sue with the con­trac­tor’s pay­ment. He said the school is 60 to 65 per cent com­plet­ed. Mean­while, the stu­dents who were re­lo­cat­ed to the pan the­atre on the com­pound of St Paul’s An­gli­can School in San Fer­nan­do have been suf­fer­ing.

“We were in­formed by the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion that they knew noth­ing about this build­ing. What is on their record is the two old schools,” Camp­bell said.

He said since then the min­istry has kept promis­ing that the school would be com­plet­ed.

“The chil­dren are fac­ing un­san­i­tary con­di­tions, the toi­lets not func­tion­ing, the roof leak­ing, old Celo­tex ceil­ing, chil­dren suf­fer­ing from asth­ma and re­lat­ed dis­eases and pi­geon in­fes­ta­tion,” Camp­bell com­plained.

He said last year a con­trac­tor had to be hired to clean the pan the­atre, par­tic­u­lar­ly where the boys are be­ing housed.

“The acoustic is bad, not con­ducive to teach­ing or learn­ing. Teach­ers are get­ting sick too,” he said.

Camp­bell said the boys’ pop­u­la­tion has re­duced sig­nif­i­cant­ly, from 256 to 113, be­cause par­ents have been tak­ing their chil­dren out of the school.

“There is an­oth­er prob­lem where the chil­dren are be­ing taunt­ed by chil­dren of St Paul’s, call­ing them squat­ters and telling them to get out of their school.

“I am call­ing on the Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion and the Prime Min­is­ter al­so to have a heart, (com­plete) not on­ly this school but the 22 schools that are in­com­plete. I want to speak on their be­half, com­plete those schools as soon as pos­si­ble. This school, in par­tic­u­lar, we want to have chil­dren there in the new aca­d­e­m­ic year.

“They have sev­en months. We want our chil­dren to be back in Mara­bel­la.”

Mara­bel­la West Coun­cil­lor La Verne Smith said she spoke with San Fer­nan­do West MP Faris Al-Rawi who said the school is one of the 22 on the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry’s pri­or­i­ty list to be com­plet­ed. She said Al-Rawi promised to meet with par­ents on Wednes­day.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored