Residents of Riversdale in the Stann Creek District have voiced to Love News, that they are not too happy with the closing down of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe RC School in that area. However according to the Ministry of Education, the school is actually just being amalgamated with St. Jude RC school at the Maya Center where more space is available, through a request from the Catholic Management to which the school was entrusted to since its inception in 1987. Today Love News spoke with a concerned parent and president of the Parent-Teacher Association of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe RC, Elsworth Linarez who told us of the main concerns.
ELSWORTH LINAREZ
“The main concern is that nobody from the Ministry of Education has ever consulted with the parents. I spoke to the Minister on Tuesday on Wave Talk Show and I asked him if shouldn’t there be somebody who should be in this negotiation and assist with this amalgamating and he said that he is the leading person; so, I told him that neither him nor anyone from his department has ever come and done any consultations and as much as I know there were two consultations about a year and a half ago and the other was in April this year; I wasn’t around because it was on a Sunday and just last week Tuesday, the people from the Catholic Mission came down and they jammed that on us and there was nothing we could have done about tha and the people are very upset about it. We were annoyed and upset and I heard the minister when I asked him about the amalgamation and that was news and shocking to everyone because we knew nothing about that. The thing that people are really dissatisfied about is the way things have happened and I am assuring you that if that Minister had come in and hear the concerns of the parents, he would have probably reconsider and I am talking based on financial issue that this will bring upon the parent having their children out every day. I know some parents from the school who has three to four children; this will bring some real stress on these parents and we are not satisfied but at this point in time there is nothing we can do.”
Linarez also said that the children had no problems at the current location and that the amalgamation of the school would mean that children will have to travel out of that location and that will prove very costly.
ELSWORTH LINAREZ
We contribute fifty two dollars because every pay day we pay two dollars and it comes up to fifty two at the end of the year. I have one child and that covers his expense for the entire year but now I have my neighbor who has four children and he contributes fifty two dollars and when you divide that amount among the four children he has, he ends up paying thirteen dollars per child and you have parents who have two, three children and so, when you divide it up that way it is a big disadvantage that we have to still pay twenty dollars registration plus whatever fees come along for the school year and these are the things we would have like to discuss with the Minister for him to reconsider the situation. We had made a decision on Sunday that we wouldn’t have registered our children but after things went this way, we were advised that we should go ahead and register our children and so, we registered them yesterday but I would really be appreciative if somebody from the department could come in and really listen to the parents.”
Linarez says he had spoken to many teachers whom he said had expressed their intentions to come back and teach at the school. Meanwhile the Ministry of Education issued a press release today, saying that the school was amalgamated based on various challenges faced in that area. One of them being problems getting teachers to the schools based on transportation issues, which in turn leads them to resort to methods like hitchhiking which further leads to them being late and because of this, it is difficult for the Ministry to find teachers or principals to be stationed at the school. Also the Ministry explains that the school population has outgrown the space resulting in over-crowdedness and that spaces are not partitioned into separate classrooms. More reasons include the toilet being a pit latrine and that the owners of the farm, are not prepared to invest in more school buildings and hope to have the property vacated by summer. The Ministry also points out that they have done this in keeping with their policy and push on the amalgamation of schools where practical and feasible to improve efficiency and quality.
Therefore the Ministry agreed to temporarily relocate the Students of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe RC to St. Judes stating that they will be willing to provide school bus transportation for the children and to carry out discussion with the Maya Centre Community and Riversdale Community to work out arrangements to pave the way for this relocation. The Ministry of Education further informs that it has notified the Catholic Management of its intention to locate a school at Santa Cruz near the roundabout at the entrance to the Placencia Road. According to them the school will serve two purposes, one would be relieving pressure from the United Community Primary School which is overcrowded and for children who travel by the busloads out of that community to now attend school there. The other reason is for the school to serve neighboring communities including Riversdale in order to reduce the travel distance for the students.