Kali­fa Clyne

The sec­re­tary gen­er­al of the Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha (SDMS) Sat Ma­haraj has con­demned and crit­i­cised the Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) for its sup­port of a prin­ci­pal who had re­port­ed­ly been barred from the school by the Ma­ha Sab­ha.Ma­haraj made the state­ment while speak­ing to re­porters at a press con­fer­ence yes­ter­day at his lawyer's of­fice in Wood­brook.Last month, TTUTA had is­sued a state­ment con­demn­ing the Ma­ha Sab­ha for is­su­ing or­ders to block a prin­ci­pal from en­ter­ing the com­pound of the Tu­na­puna Hin­du School.

TTUTA has since come in de­fence of the prin­ci­pal, pend­ing fur­ther in­ves­ti­ga­tions.The Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion re­leased a state­ment last week, stat­ing that the mat­ter was be­ing in­ves­ti­gat­ed.Claim­ing TTUTA col­lect­ed fees from teach­ers and as such its du­ty was to de­fend teach­ers, Ma­haraj said a cer­tain per­cent­age of the staff em­ployed in any sec­tor would be "way­ward."He added: "There are way­ward teach­ers in T&T but TTUTA has nev­er, ever con­demned a teacher."I to­tal­ly con­demn TTUTA for fail­ing to pro­tect the chil­dren in our school. They are more con­cerned with fees and dues than the ed­u­ca­tion of the chil­dren."Ma­haraj said TTUTA's job was al­ways to de­fend.

He added: "Whether chil­dren are un­der sex at­tacks by teach­ers, their job is al­ways to de­fend."He said TTUTA, de­spite not hav­ing au­thor­i­ty to do so, had as­signed it­self the job of clos­ing down schools."Ear­ly this year, they were paving a road in Char­lieville and in the mid­dle of road-paving the school was or­dered closed be­cause there was too much dust," said Ma­haraj.He said TTUTA had not at the time sought a re­port from a health of­fi­cer or an OS­HA re­port but had en­tered the school and closed it down.Ma­haraj de­scribed TTUTA as the "cul­prits" of the school sys­tem.