Latest update November 17th, 2024 1:00 AM
Latest News
- Guyana received US$5.4B in royalty, profits from 500M barrels pumped to date
- Final audit report of Exxon’s US$7.3B expenses sent to company, to be made public next week – Minister Bharrat
- Israeli air raid on Gaza City school turned shelter kills 10 people
- Baby dies, toddler severely burnt in Sophia fire
- Venezuelan- orchestrated cyber operations targeting Guyana – National Defence Institute
Ministry to launch probe into reports of students fetching water
Reports of young students at Santa Rosa Primary School, in Moruca, Region One, being forced to fetch water from a well aback of the school to flush toilets among other uses, have reached to the Parliament and the Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, has undertaken to launch an investigation.
Extracting water from the well.
The Minister, was grilled by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU)’s Amna Ally, on Monday last when the House held a sitting, and while Manickchand informed the Member of Parliament that the question was wrongly placed, she stressed that as a matter of policy, the Ministry does not encourage laborious chores to be done by schoolchildren that will take from their tuition time. She did point out that as a matter of teaching responsibility, the students are asked to help with clean up after school such as with the sweeping of classrooms.
Ally noted that while government has sought to move away from the use of latrines in schools and expended millions to put in place flush toilets and even erected a number of water tanks and lavatory areas, these facilities are not working at the Santa Rosa Primary. She added that there was no access to drinking water, as the well from which the children were fetching water was tainted with the e-coli virus and as such could not be used for drinking.
This publication had accompanied an APNU team that had visited the Moruca Sub District recently and witnessed first-hand a number of students using a manual pump on the well to extract the water, which they would then fetch to the school toilets.
While there were a number of large water tanks sitting atop an erected trestle and attached to a sink area, none of the taps had any running water, meaning all of the tanks were empty.
The students indicated that the fetching of water from the well is routine as there was no running water in the school.
Ally in Parliament on Monday, displayed photographs of the students fetching the water and asked the Minister a number of questions in relation to the school.
A female student fetching water to the school.
Manickchand told the Member of Parliament that by law it is the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development that is charged with the day to day running of the schools and her Ministry deals with policy.
She did however indicate to the Member of Parliament that she would launch an investigation.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
The PPP is in the grip of the bourgeoisie
…Peeping Tom Kaieteur news- The People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) stands at a crossroads. Once the vanguard... more
Rising Gun Crimes in the Caribbean: Urgent Action required by all
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News – There is an alarming surge in gun-related violence, particularly among younger... more
Weekend Cartoon
