The head of the Council of Elders Shouter Baptists of T&T Archbishop, Barbara Gray-Burke, says she will fight until her last to get a secondary school for her people.
Addressing worshippers and celebrants at the Spiritual Shouter Baptist during Spiritual Shouter Baptist Day celebrations at the Spiritual Shouter Baptist Empowerment Hall, in Maloney, yesterday, Gray-Burke said the children of the religion deserve secondary education much like those of other faiths in T&T.
“I would not give up and I would not give up until how much men carry me out from in here. I would not give up. We need a secondary school. Hell or high water, I going for a secondary school,” she said.
“Literature (and) scriptures have to be taught in that school because only by the might and the power of God we could have good children.”
In an interview with reporters, the Archbishop said they require both the land and funding to construct the school—something she believes they are entitled to from the government.
“We want land, we want funding, we want everything. Everything we could get. We born here, we didn’t come here. And why we can’t have privilege?” she said.
The faith already operates a kindergarten and a primary school.
The secondary school was promised to the community by then prime minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, a few months before the 2015 general elections.
Gray-Burke has since made representations to the Government for the school. However, she noted, her pleas appear to be falling on deaf ears.
Gray-Burke outlined other issues facing the community, like a lack of funding from the current Government administration. In the interview she said they did not receive funds in time for the celebration last year but when it eventually came, it was inadequate.
“We did not get any funding last year. The same thing happen (this year), somewhere April/May they give us $32,000. You are here, $32,000 cannot do nothing to this place,” she said pointing to the hall which is visibly in need of repairs.
She said the last time their faction of Spiritual Shouter Baptists received sufficient funding was under former Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar.
Gray-Burke was sworn in as an Opposition Senator in June 1995 and later as a Government Senator in November 1995.
While there, she lobbied for the religion to be recognised, following which, then prime minister Basdeo Panday, granted the holiday on March 30, 1996. It’s in this same spirit, she told the members of the faith yesterday she will continue her fight.
“I’m going to fight and I’m going to fight until God take this breath from me. Because if I didn’t fight, we would never have been able to get this day (Spiritual Shouter Baptist Liberation Day public holiday),” she said.
