Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

Par­ents of chil­dren at­tend­ing the Palmiste Gov­ern­ment School say the pupils still do not have prop­er ac­com­mo­da­tions to re­sume class­es, de­spite as­sur­ances from the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion.

The school was gut­ted by fire on De­cem­ber 7, 2023.

Yes­ter­day, pupils of the school re­port­ed to the Long­denville Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School as school re­opened.

How­ev­er, when they ar­rived there, par­ents and the TTUTA rep­re­sen­ta­tive said there were not enough desks for the pupils and the ac­com­mo­da­tions were not prop­er­ly or­gan­ised.

Some pupils are al­so ex­pect­ed to be housed at the new $13 mil­lion Ed­in­burgh 500 Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre.

Ker­ry Broomes, the In­dus­tri­al Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer of the T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion said the re­lo­ca­tion to Long­denville Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry was chaot­ic. He claimed no con­sul­ta­tions took place be­tween the teach­ers of both schools, par­ents and the union. Broomes said the min­istry al­so failed to com­mu­ni­cate through of­fi­cial chan­nels to the teach­ers. “The prin­ci­pal was sent a What­sApp which she sent to teach­ers say­ing that they had to re­port to du­ty here (at Long­denville) this morn­ing,” he said.

Broomes said teach­ers were as­signed to a room at the Long­denville Gov­ern­ment School where the ceil­ing was col­laps­ing and there was a short­age of fur­ni­ture for pupils, while teach­ers were forced to stand.

“They have pro­vid­ed those wood­en bench­es that were dis­con­tin­ued be­cause of er­gonom­ic is­sues, there are no desks and chairs for teach­ers at the mo­ment. There has been no meet­ing with the school com­ing in and the re­ceiv­ing school to dis­cuss the lo­gis­tics,” Broome said.

He added there was no word about the arrange­ments for the use of toi­lets, breaks, or stag­gered start and fin­ish times.

“None of this has been sort­ed out. TTUTA has not been in­volved in these dis­cus­sions.”

Class­es for Palmiste Pri­ma­ry pupils were even­tu­al­ly dis­missed around noon.

Broome al­so cit­ed an­oth­er ex­am­ple of a school with­out a per­ma­nent home, the Long­denville Pres­by­ter­ian School which he said has been in lim­bo since 2017.

He said the school has been housed at the Jern­ing­ham Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre in what he called a “tem­po­rary per­ma­nent arrange­ment”.

He hoped that would not be the case with the Palmiste Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry.

Bal­mat­tie Dal­phus-Ramdeo, whose child at­tends the Palmiste Pri­ma­ry, and who served as the Par­ent Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion head, de­scribed the move as “to­tal non­sense”.

Dal­phus-Ramdeo said, “We want all the chil­dren to be housed in the same venue and we need to get them to give us an as­sur­ance that the school would be built soon. We were not con­sult­ed by the min­istry and all of these moves are be­ing im­posed on us.”

Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly in re­sponse to the is­sues raised by par­ents and TTUTA said fur­ni­ture will be pro­vid­ed.

“The school su­per­vi­sors will li­aise with the prin­ci­pal and teach­ers to up­date on the in­ter­im arrange­ments for stu­dents at the com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre. Most of the fur­ni­ture has al­ready been placed at Long­denville and Ed­in­burgh, and ad­di­tion­al fur­ni­ture is be­ing moved to ac­com­mo­date the stu­dents and teach­ers,” she said.