KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

The Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) says stalled and in­com­plete school in­fra­struc­ture projects are plac­ing ad­di­tion­al strain on teach­ers and neg­a­tive­ly af­fect­ing stu­dent out­comes across the coun­try.

Re­spond­ing to find­ings in the Au­di­tor Gen­er­al’s 2025 re­port, TTUTA pres­i­dent Crys­tal Ashe said ed­u­ca­tors have been forced to op­er­ate in en­vi­ron­ments that are “of­ten less than ide­al,” with some schools re­ly­ing on over­crowd­ed class­rooms, makeshift spaces and de­te­ri­o­rat­ing fa­cil­i­ties.

He warned that these con­di­tions are di­rect­ly im­pact­ing the qual­i­ty of teach­ing and learn­ing.

“In many in­stances, teach­ers are re­quired to op­er­ate in over­crowd­ed class­rooms, makeshift spaces or fa­cil­i­ties that are de­te­ri­o­rat­ing. This af­fects not on­ly the de­liv­ery of the cur­ricu­lum, but al­so stu­dent en­gage­ment, safe­ty and over­all well-be­ing,” Ashe said.

The Au­di­tor Gen­er­al’s re­port found that near­ly $677 mil­lion has been spent on in­com­plete school projects over many years, with sev­er­al sites stalled, over­grown or aban­doned.

TTUTA iden­ti­fied mul­ti­ple schools across sev­er­al dis­tricts with in­com­plete struc­tures, in­clud­ing Barataria North Sec­ondary, St Joseph Sec­ondary and Mt Hope Sec­ondary in St George East; Cara­pichaima West Sec­ondary, Preysal Gov­ern­ment, Palmiste Gov­ern­ment and Long­denville Pres­by­ter­ian in Ca­roni; Poole RC and a Pres­by­ter­ian school (Pres 1) in the South East­ern dis­trict; San Fer­nan­do Cen­tral Sec­ondary in Vic­to­ria; and To­co Sec­ondary in the North East.

Ashe said the on­go­ing de­lays are plac­ing ad­di­tion­al pres­sure on teach­ers al­ready nav­i­gat­ing chal­lenges with­in the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem.

“It is un­rea­son­able to ex­pect op­ti­mal per­for­mance from ed­u­ca­tors and stu­dents when the in­fra­struc­ture meant to sup­port teach­ing and learn­ing is in­ad­e­quate or, in some cas­es, un­safe.”

TTUTA al­so raised con­cerns about the pace at which the is­sues have been ad­dressed, de­scrib­ing it as in­suf­fi­cient giv­en the scale of ex­pen­di­ture iden­ti­fied in the re­port.

While ac­knowl­edg­ing that large-scale con­struc­tion projects can face chal­lenges, Ashe said the pro­longed de­lays point to deep­er prob­lems with over­sight, ac­count­abil­i­ty and project man­age­ment.

“Greater trans­paren­cy is need­ed in how de­ci­sions are made, how funds are al­lo­cat­ed, and how con­trac­tors are held to ac­count. There must be clear time­lines, reg­u­lar pub­lic up­dates and con­se­quences where there is fail­ure to de­liv­er.”

The as­so­ci­a­tion is sup­port­ing the Au­di­tor Gen­er­al’s rec­om­men­da­tion that pri­or­i­ty be giv­en to com­plet­ing ex­ist­ing projects be­fore new ones are start­ed, ar­gu­ing that do­ing so would bring im­me­di­ate re­lief to over­crowd­ed schools.

Ashe said stronger sys­tems are al­so need­ed with­in the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, in­clud­ing im­proved vet­ting of con­trac­tors, en­force­ment of per­for­mance bonds and con­sis­tent mon­i­tor­ing through­out the life of projects.

“The ed­u­ca­tion sec­tor can­not af­ford con­tin­ued in­ef­fi­cien­cies of this na­ture.”

He added that the is­sue ex­tends be­yond in­fra­struc­ture, point­ing to broad­er con­cerns around eq­ui­ty and ac­cess with­in the ed­u­ca­tion sys­tem.

“This is­sue is about more than in­fra­struc­ture; it is about eq­ui­ty, ac­cess, and the right of every child in Trinidad & To­ba­go to a safe and sup­port­ive learn­ing en­vi­ron­ment, and every teacher to a work­place that al­lows them to per­form at their best.”

TTUTA said it re­mains com­mit­ted to ad­vo­cat­ing for teach­ers and stu­dents and is pre­pared to work with stake­hold­ers to ad­dress the long­stand­ing chal­lenges.