Dear Editor,

We the parents at Hampton Court Primary School would like to voice our concern about the way our children are being taught and treated in this school.

Due to lack of proper teaching some of us asked a young lady from the area to give our children some extra lessons in the afternoon at a residence. This young lady has nine subjects at CXC, including Maths and English. However, this humble effort to improve our children has resulted in hostile rejections by the teachers of the school.

The children’s books were seized and they were made to stand before the class while being ridiculed by the teachers. Some of the parents were then warned that children who attended the lessons would be ‘left on their own’.

The children were also threatened to stop taking these lessons or get thrown out of the class.

At a meeting the teachers made vile remarks and tried to convince us that this young lady is not qualified, but we doubt if any of them has her qualifications. We have also noticed that books that were not marked before are now marked (with backdates). This is a very stressful matter. All we want is better learning for our children, as many of us cannot read and write, easily. We want our children to be better.

These teachers seem to feel that their ‘high and mighty’ positions are being challenged. Parents are talked to harshly and are afraid to oppose these teachers as the children are being harassed and victimized. Parents are even afraid to put their names on this letter, but agree that this letter should be sent.

We would like the ministry of education or some other authority to look into this matter quickly. Parents would not want to talk in front of the teachers, so it would be better to hear from the children themselves what they are going through. We need some help urgently.

Yours faithfully,

(name and address supplied)