Dear Editor,
It is with great concern that I am writing this letter and it is to inform the public and get the Minister of Education’s attention on the deplorable state of the 8th of May C.H.S.
I am concerned since I am a parent and a member of the community in which this school is situated. There is an urgent need for a new building, the school building has been standing there for a long time and it is beginning to fall apart. At present the supporting beams are rotting and the columns supporting the upper flat are falling chunk by chunk.
This matter was brought to the attention of the then Regional Education Officer Mr. Denis Jaikaran in 2003, when a chunk of a column fell on a teacher in the home-economics department. The good sir then requested that a qualified person come in and assess the situation, which was done, resulting in that person advising that the school needs to be rebuilt.
Since then we have been asking and all we are told is that soon it will be done, the school has not been budgeted for as yet. It was only last month that the community requested to host a memorial service for the late Dr. P.A. Reid and that request was denied. The reason cited was that there is a broken beam in the school and the authorities are afraid the building will collapse. Yet when school reopened for the new school year our children are still attending classes in the very building.
Editor, I am of the opinion that because this school is in Dartmouth and it is named after the late Prime Minister’s date of birth that that is one of the reasons they have not done anything as yet, and you may ask why I say this. There is a new nursery school that is being built in Somerset and Berks.
There is a school presently there that is housing about thirty students compared to the four hundred-plus at 8th of May C.H.S and the building that there are using right now can adequately accommodate the students.
It is also in a better condition than the 8th of May C.H.S. On top of that Somerset and Berks is a small community and does not need the size of building that is being erected there, so tell me, should we not wonder what is really going on? I would like the Minister to understand that children of every race, colour and creed attend the 8th May C.H. S. from as far as Aberdeen in the lower Pomeroon and Reliance on the Essequibo Coast.
I am also asking that the Minister visit the school and have a first-hand view of the building so he would know what I am talking about.
We the parents of the 8th of May C.H.S need to know that our children are learning in a safe place. Break the building down before it falls on our children.
Yours faithfully,
AudreyAgatha Garraway
Editor’s note: A copy of this letter is being sent to the Ministry of Education for any comments it may wish to make.
