Wilkie Cumberbatch parents want single alternative site for ‘condemned’ school

Wilkie Cumberbatch Primary School parents have demanded an alternative location for the resumption of classes on September 20, saying they are fed up with its infrastructural issues and threatening to stage a protest at the Ministry of Education.

Vernon Forde, the president of the Parent-Teachers Association, said that after writing to the Ministry regarding the issues affecting the campus at Lascelles Terrace, The Pine, the parents are not satisfied with how their complaints have been handled.

Forde said: “While I am not going to stop the [protest], and if we are going to picket, I am there… I felt as though going to the media and getting the information out is as effective as that.

“One option I had was to borrow our children to go down to the Ministry, or we attend school on your compound and invade your offices. While you’re sitting in your air conditioning, we are going to be there. So yes, protest is being considered.”

The school, which was built in 1966, has been condemned following the discovery of cracks in the ceiling. But Forde and other parents who attended the press conference making the announcement said their proposal to the Ministry to assist with rectifying the electrical and plumbing issues, among others, seem to have been ignored.

The parents have held meetings with Education Ministry officials but are not satisfied that enough attention is being paid to the school which has a student roll of over 500, they said.

Last term, students attended classes at three locations, including the University of the West Indies Open Campus in The Pine, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church at Meadow Road, Wildey, and the Ann Gill School next door.

The parents indicated that while they could not understand why the school has been tasked with the responsibility to find the location for classes, they hoped all the students and teachers would be going to one location.

During the press conference, it was explained that last term it was difficult for parents with several children in different classes to have to drop off and pick up their charges at the various locations.

The parents said one child who had to take her younger sibling to another location, often made her way back home after successfully completing the task because she was too tired to then walk to where her classes were being held at the time.

Originally called New Pine Primary when it was opened to relieve the overcrowding at Pine Primary, now Grantley Prescod Memorial School, in St Barnabas, the school was renamed after renowned educator Charles Wilkinson “Wilkie” Cumberbatch in 1975. (AH)