A week after Standard Five pupils of Rousillac Hindu School were relocated to a cramped classroom that was once the principal’s office, parents staged a protest yesterday.
The school was destroyed in a bush fire in 2003 and since then, students have been housed at the Rousillac Community Centre, where there are frequent sewer and ventilation issues.
Parent Niesa Mohammed said Standard Five children have been getting wet in their classroom.
“The children are relocated to the smaller office, and they are not seeing properly. The office is located next to the washrooms. The principal was not comfortable there, so that is why she moved the children to the smaller classroom instead,” she complained.
Mohammed said several requests for a meeting with the principal have gone unanswered.
“Parents have tried to reach the SDMS and there has been no response,” she added.
Former president of the Parent Teachers Association, Shawn Boyce, said reconstruction of the school started in 2013 and it is 70 per cent complete.
“It was supposed to be completed five years ago,” he said.
Nandanee Maharaj, whose children are in Standards Four and Two, shared her concerns about the cramped conditions.
“There is no proper place to do PE, no place to play. This is not a proper place for them to grow up. They deserve a proper school and to know what a proper school life is,” she said.
Councillor for Othaheite/Rousillac, Javed Mohammed, called on the Government to complete the new school.
“It is unfair, and I am calling on the Minister of Education to get the students out of the community centre and into a new school,” he said.
Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly has not yet responded to questions from Guardian Media. Secretary General of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha Vijay Maharaj said he was out of the country but that members of his team are looking into the situation at the school.