The Parent Teachers’ Association (PTA) at the Cap-de-Ville Government Primary School is calling on the Minister of Education to set up a pre-fab school for their children as they say the current school buildings are plagued with health and safety issues.
The parents, who have been protesting since Monday, say they are fed up of being told lies about when the new school building which is under construction will be finished.
The old school building was supposed to be replaced by a newly-constructed school at the back of the old school compound.
The Education Facilities Company Ltd (EFCL) constructed a plyboard three-classroom annex on the compound to accommodate students.
Speaking to the T&T Guardian in front of the school yesterday, PTA president, Tricia Cardinal, said they wanted an intervention from the newly-appointed Minister of Education, Anthony Garcia.
Garcia, is scheduled to visit the school this morning.
She added: “We are calling on the authorities to do something. Minister of Education, we would like you to intervene as our children’s education is at stake here.
“It’s been a long time they have been promising us the school. Four years now they said they were going to give us the school since last September, then January, then this September now they are telling us January again.
“We want a pre-fab across there for the next four months to house all of our children. We want our children together and we want them out of here.”
Cardinal said parents have been keeping their children away from classes as they feared for their safety.
“The ceiling is asbestos and has been there for 60 years and it is falling down. There are bat droppings. It is not sanitary and the toilet, my god if you see every time you flush the toilet faeces coming back up.”
Cardinal said the new school building that was currently under construction still needed to be outfitted with electrical wiring and plumbing.
“They have a lot of things to do: A car park... the electrical and the plumbing. For four years it has been under construction and they are saying now it is 90 per cent finished,” she added.
Another parent, Chris Ramgeawan, said since school was opened on September 8, his son, a Standard Five pupil, has not had any classes.
“He is in Standard Five and has to sit the Secondary Entrance Assessment next year,” said Ramgeawan.
“Right now he is losing out on a lot of work. Something has to be done,” she added.