Students to be relocated to East La Penitence Primary building

Brickdam Secondary closure

…East La Penitence students to be transferred

By Ramona Luthi

Brickdam Secondary School is scheduled to be permanently relocated to the East La Penitence Primary School building during this month, as a result of the Education Ministry keeping its promise to provide safer and more sanitary facilities for the students and teachers attached to the secondary school.

This information was relayed to the teachers of the Brickdam Secondary School during the latter part of July.

The teachers, speaking to Guyana Times, said that the East La Penitence Primary had a little over 100 students, and so this school would be phased out and the pupils transferred to other primary schools closer to their homes.

Although the new location raised some concerns, the teachers of Brickdam Secondary School expressed satisfaction in being provided with better facilities for the students of the school.

Earlier in June, the teachers of the school staged a protest and refused to work until their concerns pertaining to the unsanitary and hazardous conditions of the school’s original building were addressed.

In response to that sit-in by the teachers, Chief Education Officer Olato Sam shut down the school, and asked students to return home while requesting that teachers vacate the premises after submitting all school records.

A few days later, a Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) meeting was held at St Stanislaus College with the Chief Education Officer, Assistant Chief Education Officer Leslyn Charles, the Principal Education Officer responsible for schools in Georgetown, the District Education Officer in Georgetown, other representatives of the Ministry, the PTA Board Chairman, and scores of parents and students of Brickdam Secondary.

At the meeting, Sam highlighted that after being informed that the teachers of the Brickdam Secondary School were on strike, he, along with members of the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) and other officers of the Education Ministry, met with them in an effort to resolve the issues. The Chief Education Officer said that it was his understanding that a compromise was made between himself and the teachers whereby emergency repairs would be conducted, and teachers would resume working for the remaining weeks of the school’s term, giving the Ministry time to implement permanent restoration measures at the school for the new term in September.

However, after he found that this was not the situation, as he was informed that the teachers still refused to work, Sam explained that this resulted in his decision to have the school closed, students relocated to other schools in order to continue their secondary education, and teachers to different educational facilities.

According to the Chief Education Officer at the time, the students would be admitted to Grade “A” schools such as North Georgetown Secondary, Christ Church Secondary, Central High School and North Ruimveldt Multilateral High School for the rest of the term while the Ministry assessed its options to provide a permanent solution.

However, this announcement resulted in a massive disruption within the gathering as parents chanted “No!” to the list of schools provided by Sam.

Following this meeting, an emergency press briefing was conducted in the Ministry’s Boardroom where Sam announced that the new decision was for teachers and students to complete the semester at the old building and be relocated to a new building for the new term in September.

The teachers had all formally agreed to this and affixed their signatures to the document as an indication of same.