Latest update November 8th, 2024 1:00 AM
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Schools’ administration accountable for furniture shortage
Deliberate efforts by the Ministry of Education are in place to not only improve the delivery of education but to ensure that children are in a comfortable learning atmosphere. Moreover, the Ministry has put strategic measures in place to ensure that each public school is outfitted with adequate furniture.
Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, in quiet discourse with Chief Education Officer, Olato Sam
“Every single school, (whether) nursery, primary or secondary, is supposed to have enough furniture for all of our children to sit comfortably,” Minister Manickchand recently announced.
The Ministry has been on a quest to address known shortcomings in this regard, by finding out directly from individual schools of their needs, informed the Education Minister.
With this information in hand, she said that efforts were made to specifically procure the needed furniture and transport same to the various schools across the country.
But according to the Minister, “if schools were not vigilant and say I need 10 (furniture) when they really needed 12 or 15 then they may be short, but I would not like to hear that.”
However, the Minister informed that should a school not be in receipt of the quantity of furniture it requires, the administration of that school will be answerable.
“We will ask, why is your school short? Because this Government made sure that enough money and a lot of effort went into planning how every school is going to get furniture for their children by the beginning of the term and we should be in that place right now,” asserted the Minister.
She went on to disclose that while the focus this year was on ensuring that children are comfortable in their schooling environment efforts will be made by Government to ensure that the budget next year will cater to ensuring that teachers are also comfortable.
“So we are doing it in phases…next year we will have enough furniture for all the teachers of this country, whether they it be chairs and desks, lockers, or the other kinds of things that teachers need…We are saying that next year we want all of our teachers to be comfortable in the same way that all our children should be comfortable now.”
“So by the end of next year all that we should be doing is topping up if furniture is broken and needs repairs or (to be) replaced…but furniture should never again be an issue in our country by the end of next year, either to teachers or students,” Minister Manickchand insisted.
But achieving this goal, the Minister noted, is one that requires vision and a commitment to education, complemented by needful investment.
“We have to put our money where our mouth is…saying you want these great things and not putting the money in it is two different things, so the Government made sure that we had enough money to do that and we really worked hard at the Ministry to plan it and make sure that it happened,” the Minister asserted.
And according to her, while the Ministry has been working quietly to achieve its commitment, “some of those works you don’t see….you don’t see us calling people to ask them where are your numbers? You don’t see us quarrelling with the contractors and telling them to get the desks on time or we are going to be seizing this or taking away that and publicising your names.”
Although the plans were in the making more than a year ago to improve the atmosphere of the public school system, Manickchand said that the actual works were put into motion following the passage of the national budget earlier this year. The Education Ministry was the single sector to be awarded the largest cut of the national budget amounting to $32.3 Billion.
All the efforts being funded by that allocation, according to Manickchand, are geared towards changing the quality of education output.
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