Cabinet has approved the allocation of over $220 million to contractors for the resumption of stalled school projects before year’s end. But as parents of pupils at the Union Presbyterian Primary School, Siparia, wait for their school to be completed, they are worried their children’s lives are at risk.
Since May 2014, Construction Services and Supply Ltd began to rebuild the school with a deadline of March 2015 but the project ran into overtime and work eventually stopped in September 2015 with Government still owing the contractor.
Meanwhile, the pupils were being housed in a plywood building next to the construction site, which began to rot and form mould. Yesterday, teachers and staff were blocked from entering the school as parents barred the entrance with caution tape and other objects, causing the security guard to lock the gates.
The school’s Parents Teacher Association (PTA) president, Riard Niamath, said since the beginning of the term, 150 pupils of a 400-plus population have been kept at home. He said that was a result of the shoddy repairs that have landed several pupils at the Siparia District Health Facility.
Parent Victor Roberts said school repairs were completed on September 4, the day before school reopened. He said the plywood floors and some of the concrete blocks were changed but the rotting plywood walls were painted and the fumes had not dissipated. A look at the school also showed the plywood slightly bending under the weight of the steel roof.
“We had children complaining about throat and nostril problems and having to be taken to the Siparia Health Centre,” Roberts said.
On August 25, Niamath said the PTA had a meeting with Dr Lovell Francis (Minister of State in the Ministry of Education) and a team from EFCL (Education Facilities Company), who said the temporary school was beyond repair, yet works were done for the children’s return.
“The danger to our kids is reaching to the point where officials from other authorities have visited and we are waiting for further reports.
“They have told us that the school is very unsafe and does not have a proper exit. They said should something happen, we will get more casualties trying to get out of the building rather than the cause of the accident,” Niamath added.
Francis told the T&T Guardian yesterday that currently the project was among others that were being examined by the Ministry of the Attorney General. He said as cash flow remained a problem, invoices submitted by contractors were being checked to see whether the work was done suitably.
Once that was completed, payments would be made and constructions would resume, he added.
“We owe something like $800 million to contractors. We have a Cabinet approval to start paying some of that money. We have some funding to pay about a quarter of the sum.”