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After six weeks of no classes at the Ecclesville Presbyterian Primary School, angry parents and pupils blocked the Rio Claro/Mayaro Road yesterday, calling on the Ministry of Education to address the issues plaguing the 58-year-old school building.
They gathered from 5.30 am with placards and stood in front of the school building, chanting, singing and forming a human barricade across the roadway.
The T&T Guardian spoke to parent Janella Phipps who said the school’s Parent Teachers Association (PTA) was willing to raise funds on its own to fix the problems.
“The school has been shut down for the past six weeks over electrical problems. The PTA and the area councilor have been begging the ministry to repair it but they said we have to wait for Education Facilties Company Limited (EFCL) and up to now, EFCL has not done the work.
“Our time is running out as we have until May 22 for the service commissions to come and take the meter off the school building. That will mean a longer wait for the school to get connected again,” Phipps said.
She blamed the problems affecting the school on faulty wiring.
She explained: “Because of the wiring, which is not large enough to hold the load of electricity needed for the school and because it is not large enough it is overloading and for some reason it is not tripping the breaker, which means the school can burn down at any time.
“Also the school is not grounded properly which could electrocute the children.
“This is obviously a major hazard, so even though there is no electricity and we can still have classes the electrocution threat still exists.
“The water pump also burned out due to the overload and there is no pump to get water to flush toilets or for them to drink.”
Phipps said the repairs were expected to cost less than $10,000 and questioned why the ministry was taking so long to address the issue.
“We want the ministry to either fix it or give us permission to fix it ourselves. The PTA and the Ministry of Works are willing to do the work.
“The councilor and the chairman of the corporation (Hazaree Ramdeen) are also willing to help raise the funds,” she added.
There are 160 pupils at the school. When contacted yesterday, Education Minister Anthony Garcia said he was in a meeting but he promised to give a response to the situation later on in the day.