SASCHA WIL­SON

Par­ents of chil­dren at­tend­ing the Rousil­lac Hin­du School are protest­ing for the com­ple­tion of the new school.

"COVID will kill our chil­dren.  It [is] too cramped," chant­ed par­ents who demon­strat­ed with plac­ards this morn­ing in front the Rousil­lac Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre, where the chil­dren have been housed for over five years.

The chil­dren and staff were dis­placed in 2002 af­ter a fire par­tial­ly burnt the school at Grant Road. Un­der the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship ad­min­is­tra­tion, the build­ing was de­mol­ished, and con­struc­tion be­gan on a new school, but work stopped in 2015 when the build­ing was at 80 per­cent com­ple­tion. There are 185 stu­dents at­tend­ing the school.

Flo­ra Boodoo, a grand­par­ent of a child at­tend­ing the school, told Guardian Me­dia:

"The con­di­tion is bad in this pan­dem­ic. We need our school right now. They don't know what a prop­er class­room is, a prop­er toi­let.  Every­one is cramped up over here, so we need our school right now."

She said the space is cramped, the class­rooms are sep­a­rat­ed by black­boards, and it will be im­pos­si­ble for the chil­dren to prac­tice so­cial dis­tanc­ing.

The par­ents in­tend to con­tin­ue protest­ing un­til they get a re­sponse from the Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion.