Mt Hope Sec

Senior Reporter

akash.samaroo@cnc3.co.tt

Taking note of the attention paid by the State to St George’s College, which is a few kilometres away, parents/guardians of Mt Hope Secondary School students were yesterday left wondering if they are being left to suffer as a second class institution due to their former “Junior Sec” title.

A day that should have symbolised new beginnings was marred with old problems and was enough to catalyse an early-morning protest by the school’s Parent Teachers’ Association (PTA).

“Do we have to be a prestige school to get repairs? Because I noticed St George’s on the news this morning, their roof partially collapsed, but our roof collapsed and, yet, we are still open, our teachers are still teaching, and our kids are in danger,” cried PTA coordinator Marilyn Marquis.

Marquis, who herself attended the school as a child, said nothing much has changed since then.

“I went to this school, and you know the only thing that has changed in the 30-odd years since? The uniform changed and the bathroom still not working,” she said.

Standing outside the school’s gate as students trickled into the compound, interim PTA president Merrell Rodney explained some of the issues at the institution.

“First of all, there is an infestation of wood lice, both in the ceilings, in the furniture, and it is deplorable. OSHA has cordoned off part of the school because it is a risk, parts of the staircase is rotting away. In the quadrangle, people can be electrocuted because the water runs down through the main electrical ports and when rain falls it floods the entire quadrangle, so God forbid, they are electrocuted because there is loose wiring,” he said.

Marquis said pictures were sent to the Education Ministry as proof of these problems.

“If the ministry wants to say we have not reported these things to them, we have! We have evidence! So, what is the problem? Why aren’t we being taken care of? Is it because we have that junior sec stigma still?” she asked.

The PTA wondered what the Education Ministry did during the July/August school vacation.

The parents said unfortunately, the children will suffer the most.

Noting that the school which is never in the headlines for bad behaviour associated with some government secondary institutions, Marquis said, “Our kids are excelling in here despite the odds.”

Showing solidarity with the students, Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers’ Association (TTUTA) president Martin Lum Kin also joined the parents in protest. He, too, wondered if the students needed to start fighting amongst each other to get the attention of the ministry.

“We have other schools with greater challenges getting resources. Is it that this school has to under-perform or there has to be violence and indiscipline before intervention takes place? It should not be,” he said.

However, he said there is insider information to suggest one possible reason nothing was fixed at the school.

Addressing the media, Lum Kin said, “What we are privy to, is the fact that this school has been on the high-priority listing for emergency repairs for a number of years. However, when it reaches the higher offices of the Ministry of Education, then it is downgraded and put aside.”

Guardian Media sent questions to the Education Minister, who said repairs should start soon.

Responding via WhatsApp Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly said, “Through MTS, a contractor is being procured to complete the following repairs: electrical upgrade works, sanitary fittings replacement to female staff washroom, service/repairs to air condition units, water tanks replacement, replacement of partitions to boys’ washroom, cleaning of clogged storm drains.”

Asked why this was not addressed earlier, the minister said, “The funding required to implement the entire list of school repair projects for the Critical Repair Programme 2024 totalled $190 million. An initial $20 million was available to the MOE, and that was utilised to deal with the most critical works. As more funding became available, other critical projects were added to the work programme.”

The minister did not address claims that the school is intentionally ignored on the priority list.

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