Parents staged a lockout at Barrackpore Asja Primary School yesterday to highlight deplorable conditions. They stuck placards at the school's entrance on Cunjal Road, demanding that the 30-year-old structure be rebuilt. President of the Parent/Teacher Association Garvin Rajkumar said the building was condemned by a health and safety officer, hired privately last month to do an evaluation.
Problems included a leaking roof, cracked floors and walls infested with termites. "Whenever it rains, the children have to put down their books and sweep out floods from the classrooms...they get wet because the roof is leaking so much," Rajkumar said. In addition, he pointed out, the toilets don't work and a strong stench of urine and filth infiltrates the classrooms. He said the school had seven toilets for 157 pupils.
He said the current building was supposed to be temporary but 30 years had passed and a new school was yet to be built. ASJA board representative Imam Yacoob Mohammed said he was in full support of the protest. As the school manager, Mohammed says he visits the compound daily and is appalled by the smell. "It is so bad that students cannot eat their meals...Both the teachers and the students have no comfort here," he said.
Mohammed said he had written to the ASJA board and the Ministry of Education outlining the problems, but no help had been forthcoming. He claimed Minister of Education Dr Tim Gopeesingh agreed that the school was in a deplorable state and promised to put it on a priority list for reconstruction. However, to date, nothing has been done.
A parent, Sheba Baksh-Soondar, said although she lived in Debe, she chose to send her son to Barrackpore because of the high academic standards at the school. She said, however, that the cramped and deplorable conditions were unbearable for her child. Gopeesingh could not be reached for comment on the situation yesterday.