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.