The long-awaited Chatham Primary School should hopefully be ready by early next year following payment to the contractor soon.
That assurance was given by Education Minister Anthony Garcia to parents and students from the school, who travelled for almost four hours to reach the Education Ministry in Port-of-Spain last Friday.
A group of uniformed students–from little ones to Standard Five–and several parents left Chatham around 7 am and journeyed via three maxi taxis to protest outside the ministry's St Vincent Street office.
Arriving shortly after 11 am, group spokesperson Annette Mohammed lamented that the school's construction, which has been in the works for the past three years, is still incomplete. Only 10 per cent remains to be finished–tiling and other aspects–but the contractor had halted work since no payment had been received since 2014.
She said the school's 150 students have been housed at Southern Garden for the past three years, but she said that location is too small and the distance is too far as 85 per cent of the students who have to commute have get up at 5 am to be on time
"We've been begging for so long for the completion of our school; for us to come such a long way from Chatham, you can imagine how frustrated we feel," Mohammed said. Students gathered near the ministry's entrance began chanting, "We want we school right now!"
Ministers Garcia and Lovell Francis, who emerged from the building, listened to Mohammed's appeals.
Garcia then said the Education Facilities Company Ltd advised if the contractors resumed work, the school should be completed in a month or two. He said every effort was being made to pay the outstanding debt. The ministry will meet the contractor tomorrow to determine a payment schedule for work to be resumed, he added.
Garcia also said efforts would be made to expedite the situation. He said he hoped by the beginning of the next (2017) term, everything would be alright and the school would be opened.
Francis said the school is close to a point where it can be opened and the matter should be concluded soon. Garcia also promised to give parents further feedback.
The protest mood turned into affection as some of the students hugged Minister Garcia and gathered around him as he spoke.