Several primary and secondary schools toilet facilities in Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam) are currently out of order and despite several reports made to the Department of Education and the engineering section of Region Two Administration nothing has been done.
Guyana Times understands the facilities could not be fixed due to the lack of building materials in the Regional Administration. The lack of materials is said to be creating extra burden on schools PTAs and many children are experiencing discomfort while at school.
Region Two Chairman Devanand Ramdatt
The matter of lack of materials was discussed in-depth at the Region’s RDC earlier this week. Coalition councillor Naithram reported at the statutory meeting of April that he recently visited the Aurora Secondary School where he discovered out of 12 toilets only three were functional.
Naithram said he was surprised at the discovery and explained that children are greatly inconvenienced since the school has a large population.
“It is a concern, why when school is in recess engineers don’t visit and fix these problems, why children have to suffer due to negligence of paid workers, don’t wait for Headmistress to make a report just do on-site visit and get the work down,” Naithram argued.
After Naitram was finished PPP/C councillor Arnold Adams reported that Aurora Primary School toilet facilities were also out of order and Regional Vice Chairman Nandranie Coonjah also reported that the Huis‘t Dieren children are also suffering since ten washrooms are out of order.
Coonjah said when she queried why the washrooms weren’t fixed, she was told that there were insufficient supply of plumbing materials, screws and materials in the building section of the administration.
Region Two Chairman Devanand Ramdatt said he cannot understand why the issues are not being dealt with in a timely manner. He said children should be housed in a comfortable environment and requested the Regional engineer Parswattee Latchman to give an explanation.
Ramdatt also noted that the processing of the voucher for procurement of janitorial materials seems to be a slow process. He commented that at the RDC there seems to be a gap from when the vouchers are passed from accounts to the other desks. Ramdatt suggested that vouchers be attended to in a timely manner so that issues can be resolved in a much timelier manner.
Meanwhile Regional Engineer Latchman pointed out that the delaying of vouchers in the system is the reason for lack of materials. The engineer urged that vouchers be handled efficiently so work can be done in a timely manner.
Regional Executive Officer Rupert Hopkinson then intervened saying that advances can be taken to purchase materials once there is an emergency.
Regional Education Officer Baramadai Seepersaud said whenever complaints are made to the department these are forwarded to the REO’s office. It was also reported that Charity Secondary toilet facilities are in a deplorable state.
