Emergency works to commence shortly on deplorable Santa Rosa Primary School

Sep 28, 2022 News

Kaieteur News – Following protest by teachers and parents over the deplorable state of building ‘A’ of the Santa Rosa Primary School, the Ministry of Education announced plans to shortly commence emergency repairs to the building.

Building ‘A’ of the Santa Rosa Primary School in Region One that is in dire need of repairs (Photo Credit: Moruca RDC)

Frustrated at the current state of the building and that it pose a danger for students, the parents and teachers on Monday gathered in front of the Region One Regional Education Office to protest over the school’s condition.

In light of the protest, officials from the Ministry of Education in Georgetown responded by engaging with parents and the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) in a meeting on Monday afternoon to discuss a way forward.

Sharing details about the meeting, the PTA Chairperson, Ms. Donna Henry told this publication on Tuesday, that the officials from the Ministry promised to have the building repaired and that works will commence shortly.

The Chairperson explained that the Santa Rosa Primary comprises of three buildings, building ‘A’, ‘B’, and ‘C’ and that the building that is in dire need of repairs is building ‘A’.

She shared that Grades One, Two and Five students are usually housed in that building and those are the ones seriously affected. Henry explained that at the meeting it was decided to have building ‘A’ close until it is fully repaired. In the meantime, the students who usually occupy that building will be relocated to other classrooms in the other two buildings and that a shift system will be put in place.

The PTA Chair had told this publication on Monday that last week a PTA meeting was held with parents and raised concerns about the school. Flowing from the discussion at the meeting, they decided to take action on Monday. She mentioned that for months, the headmistress of the school would write in her monthly reports to the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) that the school is in dire need of repairs.

The deteriorating condition of the school building (Photo Credit: Moruca RDC)

According to Henry, what she learned was that there is a $19.5 million allocation put aside to repair the school, which the RDC promised to use to do the necessary renovation, but to date nothing was done. “We have some major issues there where there is major overcrowding of the school, we have some children admitted to register and they cannot attend school because the school doesn’t have space for them. Another issue is that the building is a very, very old building – the floors are rotten, we have a serious heat problem that resulted because the building does not have ceiling and there is no proper ventilation,” she explained.

Henry added that just before schools reopened earlier this month, some minor repairs were done to the building by the RDC. She stated that what had prompted them was that the school’s officials had planned not to open the school if the issues were not fixed.

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