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Lawrence T Gay parents want authorities to engage them in talks on next move for school

by Barbados Today
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Parents of the Lawrence T Gay Primary School are taking the Ministry of Education to task for “excluding” them from recent decisions regarding the school.

On Monday, Education Minister Kay McConney revealed that environmental officials would investigate factors outside of the school that may be contributing to nagging environmental issues.

In the interim, she said education officials would seek alternative accommodation for class 1, class 2 and class 3 students who have once again been forced to contend with full online classes.

But president of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) Steffanie Williams said parents had not been consulted nor informed about many of the decisions affecting their children.

“My first concern is that decisions are being made and we are finding about these decisions through the media. We don’t think that that is good enough,” Williams told Barbados  TODAY.

“We do not know what is going on and I do not believe our PTA is being taken seriously either because if there is an issue at the school, they should be engaged. Why is no one reaching out?

“Are we only good for raising funds, but when serious things happen at the school, we are not supposed to have anything to say or be involved in the decisions that are being made? Yes, we know that the ministry is the head body, but we should still be engaged,” she added.

Her comments mirrored those of Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) president Rudy Lovell, who on Monday said the majority trade union had been excluded from discussions about the LT Gay situation.

Barbados TODAY understands that a meeting between parents and the LT Gay principal was held over the weekend. However, there were no definitive answers on the way forward.

But the PTA president also complained about the fact that education officials had found themselves in a similar position with regard to external tests as they did on previous occasions.

Williams recalled that in 2019, a private entity was brought in to carry out tests and found that the source of the environmental problems was at an establishment in the nearby Long Gap area.

“The gentleman who did the report stated that he went onto a property in the Long Gap area and his equipment picked up some readings that were of concern to him and in his report to the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, he recommended that the Ministry of Health take action because they are the government entity who can go onto persons’ properties. But that was not followed through and if it was, I don’t think we would be having the same problem,” said Williams.

“Why is it that COVID has happened for two years, teachers are back in schools, parents are back in schools and yet we are faced with this same situation again?  “It’s like a game of hopscotch being played with our teachers and students,” she declared.

Williams added that parents needed to be consulted on the new locations to which their children would be sent. She said there were concerns about security, transportation and the general amenities at new locations, citing concerns about the amenities on a previous occasion when classes were moved to a nearby church.

In the interim, Williams said a decision to send children from three different year groups back to full online learning would inadvertently deny dozens of students the opportunity to access a decent education due to inadequate resources.

“There are parents out there struggling with the internet, some don’t have electricity, so their children can’t go online. My home for instance does not have electricity so my daughter has not been online for the week,” said Williams.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb

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