Matthew Chin

The T&T Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) and the Na­tion­al Par­ent Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (NPTA) say they have heard lit­tle from the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion (MoE) about school re­pairs dur­ing the Ju­ly/Au­gust va­ca­tion.

“We are con­cerned that the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion is putting the lives and safe­ty of the oc­cu­pants of schools that re­quire re­pairs and in­fra­struc­tur­al work at a se­ri­ous risk,” TTUTA pres­i­dent Mar­tin Lum Kin said.

He warned that the union “will not ac­cept the bad­ger­ing from Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion of our ad­min­is­tra­tors to have schools deemed fit for re­open­ing.” Lum Kin said there are “clear safe­ty and health is­sues” at some schools and that TTUTA would not ac­cept their forcible re­open­ing.

NPTA pres­i­dent Wal­ter Stew­art ex­pressed con­cern that some schools are yet to be re­paired and stressed that the Ju­ly/Au­gust va­ca­tion pe­ri­od is the ide­al time for such work to be done with ease.

“As the schools are at min­i­mal ca­pac­i­ty lev­el, it would make for free flow for work­men to put those re­pairs in place,” he said.

Lum Kin said TTUTA met with Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan-Gads­by Dol­ly in the sec­ond week of the va­ca­tion and asked for an up­date on the va­ca­tion re­pair pro­gramme. That list is yet to be pro­vid­ed to them.

“We were in­formed that the pro­gramme could not pro­ceed un­til funds had been re­leased to the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion. But we are of the view that dur­ing the two months of va­ca­tion, re­pairs and in­fra­struc­tur­al up­grades are best placed dur­ing this pe­ri­od,” he said.

If no list is pro­vid­ed to TTUTA soon, they will have to ad­vise their mem­bers on the is­sue of health and safe­ty, Lum Kin said.

Gads­by-Dol­ly could not be reached for com­ment yes­ter­day but at a me­dia con­fer­ence on the is­sue late last year, she said Cab­i­net had ap­proved 15 sec­ondary schools for re­pairs and re­fur­bish­ment to join a list of 27 oth­ers al­ready un­der re­pair. How­ev­er, due to the ex­tent of the re­pairs need­ed for those schools and the task of find­ing a con­trac­tor, she said they wouldn’t be com­plet­ed be­fore the end of the Christ­mas va­ca­tion.