JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Friday, June 27, 2025

San­ta Flo­ra Pri­ma­ry still closed

Parents give ministry one week to effect repairs

by

20161011

An­gry and frus­trat­ed par­ents whose chil­dren at­tend the San­ta Flo­ra Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School took to St Vin­cent Street, Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day, protest­ing de­plorable con­di­tions.

And they have giv­en the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion one week to fix the prob­lems oth­er­wise promised to in­ten­si­fy their ac­tions.

They said be­cause of a di­rec­tive giv­en the Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health Ad­min­is­tra­tion (OS­HA) the school has been shut down for the past three weeks, gross­ly af­fect­ing the Stan­dard Five class­es which are prepar­ing for the SEA ex­am to be held next year. The par­ents al­so chas­tised En­er­gy Min­is­ter and MP for the area Nicole Olivierre for what they claimed was lack of rep­re­sen­ta­tion.

They said de­spite re­peat­ed let­ters writ­ten to her, there was no re­sponse.

"She has nev­er com­mu­ni­cat­ed to the PTA and that is the prob­lem we have in this coun­try right through. Af­ter we have elect­ed per­sons and put them in pow­er they tend to be­lieve they are anoint­ed and there­fore as time goes on we will def­i­nite­ly make changes to that.

"The com­mu­ni­ca­tion and the bu­reau­cra­cy, we not in­ter­est­ed in that, we want our chil­dren back in school as soon as pos­si­ble," par­ent Vic­tor Roberts said, adding some 240 pupils were af­fect­ed.

Se­cu­ri­ty was an­oth­er fac­tor af­fect­ing pupils since the bath­rooms were some dis­tance away from the class­rooms, vice pres­i­dent of the PTA Fran­cis Rev­el­lo said. He said the main prob­lem with the school was that the columns hold­ing the build­ing were split down at the cen­tre, ex­pos­ing steel rods.

"OS­HA has shut down the en­tire build­ing for the past three weeks. They al­so closed down the staff room and the li­brary. The teach­ers now have to use the same toi­let fa­cil­i­ties the chil­dren use and at any giv­en day there are about 370 peo­ple there and on­ly three toi­lets to ser­vice every­body.

"When a child has to use the toi­let, the child has to be es­cort­ed be­cause of the dis­tance the toi­let is away from the school build­ing," Rev­el­lo said.

As the group chant­ed out­side the Ed­u­ca­tion Min­istry's of­fice on St Vin­cent Street in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter An­tho­ny Gar­cia and Min­is­ter of State in the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion Dr Lovell Fran­cis left their of­fices and spoke to par­ents.

Gar­cia ex­pressed con­cern that the chil­dren were at home for so long, say­ing one day away from school was one day too long. But even af­ter the as­sur­ances giv­en by Gar­cia and Lovell that the mat­ter would be rec­ti­fied, par­ents said if af­ter a week and noth­ing was done to rec­ti­fy the sit­u­a­tion then they would con­tin­ue their protest.

Gar­cia said he would al­so get in touch with the Ed­u­ca­tion Fa­cil­i­ties Com­pa­ny Lim­it­ed (EF­CL) to de­ci­pher the prob­lem.

"We are not to­tal­ly sat­is­fied by what the min­is­ter said un­til we see some­thing is hap­pen­ing," Rev­el­lo said.

He said the PTA al­so wrote to pres­i­dent An­tho­ny Car­mona since he had at­tend­ed the school.

"He was the on­ly one we got a re­sponse from and he said he was will­ing to meet with us and he has giv­en us a date and time," Rev­el­lo added.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Today's
Guardian

Publications

DADA & Projects member Marielle Forbes, from left, architect Sean Leonard; Aripo Community Council vice president Harold Diaz; Aripo Community Council president James Valentine; Nigel Moses; DADA & projects director Valerie Taylor, artist Dean Arlen, DADA & Projects director Adele Todd and DADA & projects programme assistant Vatika Lalchan after the launch of a treehouse at the Aripo Community Centre.

DADA & Projects member Marielle Forbes, from left, architect Sean Leonard; Aripo Community Council vice president Harold Diaz; Aripo Community Council president James Valentine; Nigel Moses; DADA & projects director Valerie Taylor, artist Dean Arlen, DADA & Projects director Adele Todd and DADA & projects programme assistant Vatika Lalchan after the launch of a treehouse at the Aripo Community Centre.

MARIELA BRUZUAL

DADA & Projects member Marielle Forbes, from left, architect Sean Leonard; Aripo Community Council vice president Harold Diaz; Aripo Community Council president James Valentine; Nigel Moses; DADA & projects director Valerie Taylor, artist Dean Arlen, DADA & Projects director Adele Todd and DADA & projects programme assistant Vatika Lalchan after the launch of a treehouse at the Aripo Community Centre.

DADA & Projects member Marielle Forbes, from left, architect Sean Leonard; Aripo Community Council vice president Harold Diaz; Aripo Community Council president James Valentine; Nigel Moses; DADA & projects director Valerie Taylor, artist Dean Arlen, DADA & Projects director Adele Todd and DADA & projects programme assistant Vatika Lalchan after the launch of a treehouse at the Aripo Community Centre.

MARIELA BRUZUAL

Aripo treehouse showcases art and design

6 hours ago
Cuatrista Richard Nurse

Cuatrista Richard Nurse

Cuatrista Richard Nurse

Cuatrista Richard Nurse

‘Timeless’ golden music from Louis and the Lynx

6 hours ago
Amrit Samaroo, middle row right, performing during the South Carolina Festival of Steel with South Carolina University’s CalypSamba.

Amrit Samaroo, middle row right, performing during the South Carolina Festival of Steel with South Carolina University’s CalypSamba.

Amrit Samaroo, middle row right, performing during the South Carolina Festival of Steel with South Carolina University’s CalypSamba.

Amrit Samaroo, middle row right, performing during the South Carolina Festival of Steel with South Carolina University’s CalypSamba.

Amrit Samaroo completes South Carolina steelpan residency

Yesterday
LRF officials handing over donations to the Wendy Fitzwilliam Paediatric Hospital.

LRF officials handing over donations to the Wendy Fitzwilliam Paediatric Hospital.

LRF officials handing over donations to the Wendy Fitzwilliam Paediatric Hospital.

LRF officials handing over donations to the Wendy Fitzwilliam Paediatric Hospital.

Mother’s life of giving inspires charitable foundation

Yesterday