President of the Unified Teacher's Association, Devanand Sinanan, is hoping that the new school term will open without a hitch next week.
In a brief interview yesterday, Sinanan said they were quietly confident that all schools will be opened on Monday, after they received promises from the Ministry of Education that work on them will be completed.
“We will go by the assurances from the ministry and we are optimistic that all will be ready for the new term. There were some schools that were under repair the minister assured all will be ready on Monday and work was going on around the clock,” Sinanan said.
Sinanan said there were key repairs being done at the Siparia Union Presbyterian Primary School and Rousillac Hindu School. However, he expressed concerns about whether San Juan South Secondary School would be ready, since it was in a dilapidated state and there were a number of OSH violations. He said the building was termite infested, had a leaking roof, gas leakages and outdated electrical wiring.
“The school has been producing excellent results. Unfortunately, no one was paying attention. The science block is condemned since June. An official letter was sent to the permanent secretary and the block is cordoned off,” he said.
Sinanan said there were some 500 students at the school and there were no alternatives for them to take classes in science, chemistry, biology, physics and integrated science.
“That is madness. The ministry has to take immediate steps to repair the problems and bring it up to OSH standards and should have done that during the holidays. The whole school needs reconstruction and the school was built in 1962,” he said.
He said the students needed a new school in the shortest possible time.
Attempts to reach Education Minister Anthony Garcia were unsuccessful yesterday.