Education Ministry, Brickdam Secondary staff reaches temporary agreement

Jun 16, 2016 News

– Staff and Students to remain in school until school term ends

The major stakeholders in the impasse which prevailed over the last week have finally come to a compromise over the many issues faced by the staff and students of the Brickdam Secondary School.

Chief Education Officer, Olato Sam

At a press conference, hosted by the Chief Education Officer Olato Sam, yesterday, it was announced that an interim agreement be devised by the Board of Governors of the school, its Parent-Teacher Association and the teachers.
The plan will have the staff and students remain in the deteriorating building until the end of the term which culminates on July 9, 2016.
This agreement came on the heels of a previous decision made on Tuesday last by the Ministry to have the staff and students transferred to different secondary institutions. The children were to be sent to North Georgetown Secondary, Christ Church Secondary and North Ruimveldt Multilateral.
Sam intimated that the wisdom behind that decision was to find a quick solution to facilitate the children writing their final year examinations. He noted that it was an emergency decision. “With every passing day, another day was lost in relation to the students being able to complete their end of year assessment,” the CEO said.
He continued, “To actually not have that happen is a disservice to them and really causes more problems than one can possible imagine and our attempt was to find a more immediate solution to the problem.”
Both staff and parents had expressed their dissatisfaction with that plan and proceeded to stage a protest action yesterday morning in-front of the school. Responding to this, the Ministry rescinded the decision and a new one was made.
Noting that the present plan in place only lasts until July, Sam told the press that the Ministry is currently in the process of sourcing land to build a school that will remove both Brickdam Secondary Students and pupils from Central High School from their present locations.
According to Sam, “The ultimate solution is to have both schools out of those environments because they are not ideal educational environments.”
Sam cited that the buildings that house two schools have major structural problems. He assured that the Ministry’s building engineer is looking into the matter so as to make relevant repairs to the structures to make them at minimum, fit enough to accommodate the students until a permanent fix can be implemented. He promised that the situation will continue to be monitored.
He described the temporary solution as a “stop-gap measure”. He told the gathering that no land has been acquired yet to facilitate the construction of a new building, but the Ministry is in the process of sourcing the land. He noted that finding land in Georgetown has been one of the challenges which the Ministry has been facing.
When asked what will happen when the new academic year begins in September, the CEO intimated that they will be forced to find a new location to host the children.