Latest update January 20th, 2025 4:00 AM
St Thomas More Primary says…‘No teacher; No school!’
The transfer of a Grade Five teacher from the St Thomas More Primary School in D’Urban Street, Wortmanville, sparked a muddled protest by students and parents in the school’s compound yesterday.
The teacher, Mervina Thomas, is soon to be transferred to the Cummings Lodge Secondary School.
The uproar from the students drew a crowd outside of the school.
At the school, yesterday, dozens of pupils dressed in their school uniforms were outside repeatedly shouting “We want justice. No teachers, no school”, while parents held placards.
The pupils of St Thomas More Primary protesting at the school yesterday.
President of the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) of St Thomas More Primary, Trisha Massiah, said that last Friday her daughter came home and notified her that one of the teachers would be removing from the school.
The woman further explained that at present there is one teacher who is on maternity leave, while another teacher maintains another class along with a substitute teacher in the Grade Five level.
“What we are saying is that if they remove Miss Thomas what is going to happen to our school,” the PTA president said.
The concerned parent further said, that unknowing to the parents and teachers of the school Miss Thomas was ordered to be transferred to the Secondary School by the Ministry of Education.
The woman further avowed that due to the fact that the students in Grade Five are upcoming candidates for the Secondary School Entrance Examination (SSEE), the removal of the teacher will pose a setback for the students.
The President said that while most of the teachers living in Georgetown are now being taken to East Coast Demerara Schools, the committee will not allow Ms Thomas to be removed without a “proper” replacement.
Massiah told reporters that based on information forwarded to her; the reason for Ms Thomas’s removal is because of the school being over staffed. It is however unclear if the school indeed is over staffed.
The Head Mistress was unable to confirm this information.
However, another parent said that the removal of her daughter’s teacher is now a great concern to the parents. “Miss Thomas was there from the beginning with my daughter and she has improved in every subject area. I don’t see why they would want to remove such a good teacher from here,” the parent said.
A release from the Ministry of Education stated that it strongly denounces the recent actions by some small pockets of persons to disrupt the functioning of schools by illegally protesting and behaving in other unhealthy and unwholesome ways.
“The Ministry is referring specifically to two new features that were introduced into complaints over the last week and a half; one, the locking of school gates and compounds as a form of protest and two, the usage of children during school hours as protesters,” the release stated.
The release further noted, that the ministry will not tolerate the locking of school gates as a form or part of protests and the utilisation of school premises as a location of protests.
It was also stated that threatening and traumatising teachers, parents and students as a means of forcing their involvement in illegal, unconstitutional activities and exploiting children during school hours by utilising them to hold placards, congregating on the roadways, shouting unwholesome slogans will not be tolerated.
“The Ministry of Education is working with the Guyana Police Force to ensure that any school compound that is locked will be opened immediately and those responsible for locking same will be dealt with condignly by the law. The Ministry will also treat condignly parents who keep their children away from instructions to be used at protests,” the release stated.
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