The condition of our schools

Oct 18, 2025 Editorial, News

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(Kaieteur News) – Over the years, the stories have been the same, only the names of the schools change. From the coastland to the hinterland, from Berbice to Bartica, and now again on the East Coast of Demerara, our nation’s schools continue to fall apart under the weight of neglect. Leaking roofs, crumbling walls, no furniture and now pigeon and bat infestations. These are not new headlines. They are symptoms of a system that has learned to live comfortably with failure.

Just this week, the Ministry of Education announced it would conduct assessments of schools on the East Coast and East Bank following reports of pigeon infestation at the BV Primary School. This comes barely a year after a similar disgrace unfolded at Charlestown Secondary, where students and teachers were forced to endure classes alongside droppings, feathers, and the stench of disease. Parents had to step in, and only then did the authorities “investigate.”

And now, even as we write, the WIN Party has highlighted yet more cases in the hinterland — same problems, same neglect, same excuses.

How many times must the nation be embarrassed before someone takes real responsibility? How can a country boasting of multi-billion-dollar bridges, highways, and gleaming new offices continue to let its children learn in filth?

It is disgraceful. It is indefensible. It is unpatriotic.

Our schools are not falling apart because of poverty or lack of resources, they are collapsing because of poor supervision, zero accountability, and a culture of bureaucratic indifference. Teachers have been speaking out for years, reporting these issues through “the proper channels.” Too often, their reports go unanswered. Memos vanish. Promises are made. Then nothing happens, until parents take to the streets or the media forces the issue into the spotlight.

We have seen it all before. Parents closing down schools in protest. Children sent home because their classrooms are unsafe. Teachers staging sit-outs because of unbearable conditions. It is a cycle of shame, one that repeats because no one is held to account for the neglect.

Every child deserves a clean, safe, and functional learning environment. That is not a luxury, it is a basic right. When classrooms are overrun by pigeons and bats, when roofs leak onto blackboards, when chairs are missing and toilets are unusable, we are not just failing our children academically; we are betraying them morally.

The government boasts regularly about the number of new schools being built and yes, new infrastructure is important. But progress is not only about cutting ribbons; it is about maintaining what already exists. If the Ministry of Education cannot properly maintain its existing schools, what confidence can parents have that the new ones won’t fall into disrepair in a few short years?

It is time for the government to stop reacting and start governing.

Here are some solutions that go beyond the public-relations response:

Establish a Continuous School Monitoring and Maintenance Unit.

This unit should operate under the Ministry of Education. Its job must be to conduct routine inspections not only when scandals erupt. Reports should be made public.

Secondly, empower headteachers with budgetary control. Many minor repairs — a leaking pipe, a damaged door, broken desks could be fixed locally if schools were given small discretionary budgets. Headteachers should not have to beg or wait months for simple maintenance.

Thirdly, every Education District Officer should be required to sign off quarterly on the condition of schools in their region. If a school falls into ruin under their watch, there must be administrative consequences.

Fourthly, parents must have a formal role in monitoring the physical condition of schools. A simple monthly checklist — classroom condition, sanitation, repairs needed can keep everyone alert and involved.

And finally, each year, an independent team should assess school infrastructure nationwide, ranking facilities by condition. That report must be published, not hidden in ministerial drawers. These are not complicated ideas. They are basic systems of governance, the kind that any serious nation employs to safeguard its most valuable resource: its children.

If we can track oil barrels, monitor foreign investors, and boast about GDP growth, we can surely keep track of leaking roofs and pigeon infestations.

Guyana’s education revolution will mean nothing if the next generation learns under ceilings that drip and walls that crumble. A true “world-class education system” begins with a classroom that is safe, sanitary, and worthy of our children.

Until we fix that and fix it everywhere, not just when the cameras arrive no number of new schools will make us a better country.

Our children deserve better.

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• condition, crumbling walls, Editorial, Leaking roofs, schools

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