‘Shine rice’ served to students in Region 7 dorms…Food supplies sent but Tender Board yet to award contract for more relief

Jun 08, 2022 News

The food the students of D.C Caesar Fox Secondary School are being fed. [Photo credit, John Adams]

Kaieteur News – Days after a teacher at the Desrey Caesar-Fox Secondary School in Waramadong, Region Seven, took to Facebook to highlight that a food scarcity at the school had led to the students being served “shine rice” for several days, the school on Monday night received food supplies.
The post of the teacher, John Adams, who is currently holding the position of Senior Assistant Master (SAM), which went viral gained the attention of the Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand.
In his post, Adams explained that “plain rice/shine rice” has been the food being fed to the dormitory students at the school for lunch or dinner on a daily basis.
Minister Manickchand in a statement on her Facebook page had said an investigation will be conducted into the allegations. “I have seen the posts about [D.C Fox Secondary, Waramadong] and if any of it is true, it is not the service we intend, provide funding for or will tolerate.” The minister had explained that the schools in Region Seven fall under the direct management of the Regional Democratic Council of Region Seven which is supervised by Ministers of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall and Anand Persaud.
Notably, during an interview with The Guyana Chronicle, Minister Dharamlall stated that supplies for the school were not requested, and that the situation had since been rectified.

Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall

The minister blamed lack of timely communication as the cause for the students being fed “shine rice.” He continued, “Far as I’m aware, food has [since] been sent in to the village. It’s a system where the head teacher would make the request of the RDC for procurement, and up to Friday last, the head teacher did not make any request [for anything] except flour.”
Notwithstanding the minister’s comment, the teacher had first highlighted the issue in a post on April 1, 2022. In fact, with a picture attached to his post, Adams stated that this has been the food being given to the students after one week in a month of having meat as part of the menu.
According to the teacher, since school reopened in October 2021, the food scarcity has been the problem at the dormitory. In that post he had stated too, that the food services supervisor at the school had explained to him that many food items requested do not reach to the school.
Following his first post, a team of government officials had visited the school and conducted a survey. After determining that the school was indeed facing food scarcity, the team of officials had promised to look into the matter. However, after no improvements were made, this led to the teacher making a second post.

The food the students of D.C Caesar Fox Secondary School are being fed. [Photo credit, John Adams]

In a post on Saturday last, Adams said, “This week the cooks at the dormitory kitchen have been getting trouble in preparing good meals because there is shortage of food stuff. They had no option but to cook what is available in the kitchen.”
In giving an update on the matter, the teacher stated that on Monday afternoon the Regional Education Officer (REO) and District Education Officer (DEO) arrived at their school after a visit to Georgetown earlier in the day. He related that the REO and DEO explained that the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) has not yet awarded the contract to anyone to supply food stuff to the school dormitory.
However, he stated that the team brought in food stuff to the dormitory which resulted in the students being served better food. “We got a little relieve, we got a little relieve but the issue is not properly solved…” Adams noted.
Moreover, as it relates to the shortage of fuel for the generator, which supplies the school compound with electricity, the teacher revealed that the school received one drum of diesel, so they currently have electricity at the school.