Dear Editor,

I attended a Parent Teachers Association (PTA) meeting of the Anna Regina Secondary School. Both Head and Deputy were absent, yes, excuses were given. But the Heads of Department of Social Studies, Science, Maths and English Industrial Arts were visibly absent also.

Naturally the parents had good reason to be annoyed and they voiced their concern. There were a handful of junior teachers who were primarily there to hand out the students’ report cards. Nevertheless the PTA chairman proceeded with the meeting. Mrs. Radha Lall who presented the Head’s report, chided the parents and accused them of not being co-operative enough. But let’s go on. This school has a school board and only one member was present. She is a teacher at the school. It’s a normal practice. The others don’t turn up. Five members – Mr. Damon, Mr. Deonarine, Mr. Parmanand, Mr. Tulsie (chairman of the board) and Mrs. Coonjah are PPP councillors of the RDC. Upon investigation I learnt that the head is the sister-in -law of the regional chairman.

I learnt after the meeting (held on 14th Jan) that the Heads of Department for Home Economics and the 2 senior mistresses were also absent.

Note that this school is supposed to be the top CXC School in Region #2 because the cream of the SSEE students go to this school.

Yours faithfully,

Carl Juman