Substandard work detected at Region 6 schools – RDC informed

Even as World Teachers’ Day was being observed, the Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) Administration has expressed concern over substandard work at schools in the region and the frequency in which Parent Teachers Associations (PTAs) are asking parents to make financial contributions to assist schools.
Those issues were raised when the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) met on Thursday. Some of the work done by contractors at schools in the region are endangering the lives of children and on one occasion, a child was injured, the RDC was told.

Head of the Regional Works Committee and Regional Vice Chairman, Dennis DeRoop told the RDC that poor quality work is coming from the contractors who have been handpicked to carry out work for the Administration.
DeRoop explained that most of the contractors, even though they would submit the names of technical personnel for the projects; when the worksites are visited, no such persons are found.
He said what he has found is that juveniles and apprentices are carrying out the work and on some occasions, the person in charge cannot even read the bill of quantities.

At the Linepath Secondary, on two occasions the teachers and students were forced to flee the school because of shabby electrical work which resulted in wires sparking in the ceiling.
“This particular contractor is saying that ‘jumbie’ is at the school and he can’t fix the problem,” DeRoop told his fellow Councillors.
“This is a very serious situation and we need to look at it. The other thing is that the contractor has removed the expensive ceiling fans that we had in the schools and he replaced them with some cheap fans; the ones like you use in your homes. I don’t know [where] he took the fans from the school to. Our electrical people went there and the only thing that they could have done was to take off the power from the main switch but we are still having the sparking.”
In the Black Bush Polder, the sanitary block at Johanna Secondary is also a cause for concern. Polythene was used to hold up the pluming and the contractor has used hollow blocks where vent blocks should have been used.
“I would recommend that we pull the entire thing down. I have never seen a sanitary block so ugly. The work is so substandard if you look at that building it is shoddy. This is happening because we are not tendering for contracts and we are giving them to the wrong people,” the Works Committee Head said.
He added that there was never a technical person on site when the Works Committee visited.
“There are several other contract sites, when you go there and talk to the person in charge on the ground, they can’t interpret the bill quantities so it is useless that you speak with them,” DeRoop added while explaining that a student was injured at another secondary school because of the poor quality work done by the contractor.
“At Manchester Secondary School, it was reported that a window fell out and injured a student,” he related.

Missing money
Meanwhile, Head of the Regional Education Committee, Zamal Hussain in presenting the Regional Education Report called for an investigation into the Berbice High School where he said $1 million is missing from the school’s coffers. After several months, there has been no report forthcoming.
Turning his attention to the PTAs, Hussain noted that at the Number 36 Primary, a senior official of the teaching staff demanded $150,000 from the PTA before proceeding on leave. That teacher, he said, left the country to go overseas.
He said while President David Granger has been placing much emphasis on education, many PTAs have been asking parents to make huge contributions to schools.
President of the Number 56 Primary PTA, Anita Boodram told this publication that it was not true that the Head of the school had taken the money. She said the treasurer balanced the books on Thursday. However, the treasurer, Ashmani Loy, said the issue is now settled but she refused to provide any details.

Parents’ refusal
Meanwhile, Regional Chairman David Armogan said many parents have expressed concern about the issue and parents are now refusing to attend PTA meetings because at every meeting they are being asked for money.
Armogan is of the view that many PTA bodies are not aware of their function.
“What the Education Committee needs to do is to educate the PTA on how it should operate and what are the rules that govern such bodies and how they are to raise finances and to account for monies that they would have raised. That is what they need to do so that no Head Teacher can come to them and say they want $150,000. This means that the PTA does not know what it has to do. I think that is where the problem is – with the PTAs not knowing what are their parameters of operation.”
The Chairman has since instructed that training sessions be held for officials of PTAs to inform them on how they should operate. (Andrew Carmichael)