EDUCATION officials are scrambling to get the country’s school plant into a presentable state for the reopening of school next month as more and more schools are said to be suffering, not just from an invasion of termites and woodworms, but outright vandalism carried out by students.
Broken toilets, smashed windows, sagging doors and wrecked furniture found in schools across the country are attributed, in most part, to the students attending those schools.
Moulds, leaky roofs and the general untidiness of some schools are credited to a lack of thoughtfulness on the part of the school caretakers, which in some cases are the various government departments responsible for the maintenance of schools on the island.
The Sir Arthur Lewis Community College and the Soufriere Comprehensive Secondary School are just two examples of student vandalism and official neglect that have been allowed to grow to a point where the Ministry of Education is now tussling with decisions, unsure which school to tackle first with its limited budget for school renovation.
There is hope for the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College in that three of its divisions that are worst affected with mould and broken roofs have been relocated to the George Charles Secondary School. Students and staff of that school will take up residence next month at the Jon Odlum Secondary School which has enough space to accommodate both schools comfortably, according to Ministry officials.
Further, $3 million has been sourced from the Caribbean Development Bank for rehabilitation works at the College. Olivia Saunders, principal of the College said that because of the amount of work to be done on the College’s physical plant, it appears that the three affected divisions will have the use of the George Charles Secondary School complex for the full 2016-2017 academic year.
The Soufriere Comprehensive Secondary School is another story of negligence by Ministry officials and outright vandalism by students.
“It’s in a dilapidated state,” MP for Soufriere Herod Stanislas said of the school.
The town’s parliamentary representative said that classrooms are in a decrepit state and the school has issues with water that is causing further damage to its structure.
“I will do everything I can for the school within two to three weeks,” he said, further stating that the school has been in a derelict condition for “a considerable length of time.”
Education Minister, Dr. Gale Rigobert will have her hands full trying to bring schools to a respectable state with less than three weeks left before their re-opening.
She has begun a tour of all schools on the island. The tour started last Thursday on the east coast and is expected to continue next week.
The tour is to provide the Minister with a better understanding of the magnitude of the problems confronting the physical structures of educational facilities on the island and the scope of work to be done.
