—as part of efforts to address space concernsThe Brickdam Secondary SchoolThe possibility of two city secondary schools being merged and placed in a state of the art type facility is being contemplated by the Ministry of Education. This possible development was yesterday vocalised by Minister of Education,Wholesale Air Jordan, Priya Manickchand, who revealed that the two schools in question are the Brickdam Secondary and Central High.“That is something we have no difficulty in saying. We have a problem with finding space because you can’t put children in a busy street, and so we are making sure that it is funded so that we can actually make sure that it is state of the art,” said Manickchand yesterday.Her disclosures were forthcoming as she hosted a press conference at the Kingston, Georgetown, National Centre for Educational Resource Development. (NCERD)The proposed state of the art facility to which the Minister alluded, was in fact discussed at a meeting during the latter part of last year at the Ministry of Finance. “This came up and was addressed and was really hammered out in more detail than anything else about how we will be able to fund this,” said the Minister as she insisted that this was long being addressed, even before it gained the attention of the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU).The GTU at a press conference on Wednesday disclosed that there were a number of concerns at some schools within the city, ranging from limited recreational spaces to the possibility of a fire hazard situation. The primary institution of concern that was highlighted by the GTU was however the Brickdam Secondary School.Nevertheless, the Union had also listed the Central High and St Agnes Primary as some of the schools in the city with issues of concern that must be addressed.But according to Manickchand yesterday “it (the schools’ concerns) didn’t come to our attention through the Union,Man Utd Away Kit 2018/19, although it is a claim I see they have that they are concerned, but it is something that we have looked at…”The Minister yesterday noted too, that what she found particularly troubling was the fact that the Union, although it claimed to have a number of concerns relating to the schools,Adidas Yeezy Shop Online Italia, failed to raise these with the Education Ministry. “… ick up the phone and call us and make sure that we know about it because there are many things; with 1,000 schools and 10,000 teachers, there are many things that we couldn’t know about if people didn’t tell us and so we always appreciate that kind of feedback…,” added the Minister as she insisted that this certainly wasn’t the case with regards to the concerns raised about the schools.At its press conference, which was venued at the GTU Woolford Avenue,Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping, Georgetown, headquarters, GTU Administrative Field Officer, Lancelot Baptiste, said that late last year he was invited to a meeting at the Brickdam Secondary School which was intended to help address a number of matters among members of staff. At that forum,Cheap Jerseys, the GTU Officer said that he challenged the Head Teacher of the School to recommend to the School Board that a report be submitted to the Education Ministry highlighting the need for the school to be relocated. The Head Teacher is also a member of the School Board.His decision to raise his relocation suggestion with the Head Teacher, Baptiste said, was premised on his conviction that the school was too near to a busy section of the city and had no playground in which children could recreate. “They just have two passage ways…,Cheap Authentic Jerseys,” the GTU Officer observed. The narrow passage ways in fact, constitute the only yard space for the school and therefore represents the perimeter of the property.Baptiste intimated that “I mentioned to her (the Head Teacher) that many a mornings, recreation time (and) lunch break, children could be seen standing on the road because there is no place else for them to go,” recounted Baptiste. Moreover, he said that there have been complaints about students playing in the classroom, a situation that can hardly be avoided in light of the fact that “this is the only place that they have to play. The very place that they have to go to do systematic learning they have to be playing there, because they have no place else and these are young people with hormones.”He also spoke of highlighting that the school’s blocked Hadfield Street entrance was one that could pose a threat if there was a fire. “If there is a fire nobody can go through there…I mentioned all of that to her (the Head teacher) to try to convince her that she needed to talk to Board Members about having a meeting forthwith with the Ministry,” said Baptiste.This publication has learnt that efforts have since been made to clear the school’s Hadfield Street entrance. |
