Education Minister Shaik Baksh yesterday dismissed reports that some President’s College students who staged a protest over the water situation at the school were suspended or expelled, insisting that no action has been taken against the students.
However the minister told this newspaper that he was leaving it entirely up to the school’s board and principal to decide if any disciplinary action would be taken.
“You see we need to avoid a re-occurrence of the situation, we don’t want students going on the public road to protest,” the minister said during a brief telephone interview with this newspaper yesterday.
But Baksh was adamant that no action was taken against any student, saying, “This is not true.”
Word had spread among current and past students of the boarding school that the students would face stringent disciplinary action and this was being forced by Baksh.
At the time he spoke with this newspaper, Baksh said he had just concluded a meeting with the chairman of the school’s board as well as its principal and was assured that no action was taken against any student.
The minister said it is the two officials who will have to decide on a course of action.
Asked whether after his meeting he got the impression that the officials were tending toward disciplinary action against the students, Baksh insisted “it is up to the board and the school and they will have to make that determination.”
The minister said he was informed that most of the students turned out to school yesterday and water was being supplied through the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) line which has been attached to the school from the village.
He said that the water was adequate and measures have been put in place to ensure that it is of good quality.
He told this newspaper that work was ongoing on the school’s well and the damaged pump which has to be cleared of obstacles.
He was however unable to say when the situation would return to complete normalcy, noting that the work on the well could take some time.
Meanwhile in a statement yesterday the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) said it was concerned about reports that disciplinary action would be meted out to the students who staged last Thursday’s protest on the Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara public road.
The WPA noted that the students were involved in exposing a serious health hazard in the school and a grave deficiency in the school’s administration. And the party commended the students for the action they were forced to take as a last resort.
However it questioned why the school’s board hadn’t taken earlier action to remedy the situation.
The WPA statement said it noted that by Minister Baksh’s own admission he too was apprised of the water supply problem in the school weeks ago.
“It is clear that neither the school board nor the ministry was prepared to deal with such a serious problem until the students felt that enough was enough and took action to publicize the issue for a second time,” the statement said.
It also referred to protest action by students at the Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE) before serious defects there were addressed by the education ministry.
“Sadly, it seems that the political directorate only acts when it is publicly exposed. If this is what it takes to remedy shortcomings then all those persons, including students in Guyana who feel aggrieved, must act accordingly,” the statement said.
The party has also called on both the Guyana Teachers’ Union (GTU) and the Parent-Teachers Association (GTA) of President’s College to support the action of the students at the college which was intended to highlight the fact that a clean and reliable potable water supply is a human requirement.
The Ministry of Education had approved the suspension of classes at President’s College for two days following a protest by students over the unavailability of potable water as a result of a defective water pump.
The pump broke down over three weeks ago before the start of the new school term. Students had complained to Stabroek News about this on September 20.
The Civil Defence Commission had been trucking water into the compound, but students had complained about the inadequacy and quality of water.
Close to 150 students, some of them in uniform, stood in the shade of a tree on the Public Road at Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara last Thursday morning and made their concerns known to the media. They also made use of placards to highlight the issue.
