Diamond Nursery School drops scores of students

Aug 15, 2013 News

Residents of Diamond Housing Scheme on the East Bank Demerara, are now demanding answers from the education sector after receiving news that their children have been denied admission into the community’s only nursery school.
It has been confirmed that the recently constructed Diamond Nursery School would open for the start of the new school year. As such, parents jumped at the opportunity to have their children enrolled in the nearby educational institution, which would ultimately cut transportation costs.

The newly built Diamond Nursery School

Previously, residents of the Diamond Housing Scheme were left with little or no alternatives other than to enroll their children at the nursery schools in nearby communities; since there was no such facility existing in the new housing scheme.
Contrary to their expectations however, several parents were on Tuesday informed that their children were no longer accepted into the new school. The news comes weeks after the registration process had been completed at the new building in July, and after many had already sewn their children’s school uniforms in preparation for attendance at the institution.
According to one parent, who requested anonymity, telephone calls were made by the Regional Education Office, notifying parents of a meeting at the Grove Nursery School on Tuesday last. The meeting served to inform the parents that the Diamond school can only accommodate 120 students and as such, scores of other applicants had to be rejected.
Additionally, the parents were told that the school was built for solely ‘first year’ nursery applicants but ‘second year’ applicants would be accepted on the basis that they were kin to a ‘first year’ student.
It was informed that the majority of rejected students were ‘second year’ applicants, however, ‘first year’ applicants were also rejected.
The Regional Educational Officer (REdO) was reportedly among those who had related the information at the meeting.
According to the parent, no one had been previously informed of the ‘cut off’ number of students that the school can accommodate, until Tuesday.
Another parent, Susan Singh, recounted that the school had accepted approximately 200 students on the days of registration. “Some apply for first year, some apply for second year. The registration was done for everyone and we were given sketches of the uniform.”
Singh, noting that she had no knowledge of the meeting that was called on Tuesday, said that she acquired her information through phone calls to the Regional Education Office on the East Coast of Demerara.
She said that upon calling the Education office to confirm the news, she was told that the Diamond Nursery School was not a government owned facility. She said that the officer with whom she spoke informed her that the school was “a trust fund donated to the government.”
When the officer was asked what would become of the students that were rejected, she responded by saying that there was nothing that the office can do to resolve the matter. She added that if they were to admit any extra student beyond the capacity of the school, “the people would take back the school from the government.”
Singh said that she was told that there was no alternative but to send the children to the nursery schools that they had previously attended.
Concerning the Diamond Nursery School uniforms that were already sewn, the parents were told that the children will be allowed to wear the uniform to the school they would now have to attend and that “the teachers will have to accept it.”
It is now an added wonder whether the neighbouring nursery schools will have the space to accommodate those students that have been refused.
The aggrieved parents are adamant that the situation is highly unethical. “We live here. We supposed to get first privilege for the school,” Singh, who lives merely a few yards from the school, stated. “We know the school build for people in Diamond Housing Scheme, and it can’t be fair that you got to pay $400 passage to take your child to another school in another area when a school was built for people in this area. That is unfair!” she said.
“If they know the school build for first year children, they should tell the parents from the beginning rather than letting people go through all this,” another parent lamented.