Minister of Education Shaik Baksh has been invited to a meeting next Friday with parents and residents of the Santa Rosa community to discuss the installation of flush toilets at the primary school following the death of nine-year-old Tenaha De Souza who fell into the hole of a pit latrine.
The decision to invite the minister to the meeting was taken at an emergency meeting convened on Wednesday afternoon where parents, teachers and regional officials, including the Regional Education Officer (REO) were in attendance.
Chairperson of the Parent-Teachers Association (PTA), Mark Atkinson, said parents indicated that they had received no direct information from the minister or his ministry as everything they have learnt was from the newspapers.
“We decided that we want to hear from the minister direct and so we invite him to the meeting to come and talk to us,” Atkinson said. He said that it was important for the minister to meet the parents and the community as a whole following the tragedy of De Souza’s demise.
He said he felt the matter was important enough for the minister to travel to the area and parents were looking forward to his visit.
However, should the minister fail to attend the meeting the parents have decided, his ministry “can have no say” in the building of sanitary blocks at the school as they said that it would be left up to the parents.
“We would accept donations and we continue to ask for donations and we will build the sanitary block because we are concerned for out children,” he told Stabroek News.
Tenaha’s father, Robin De Souza, who was also at the meeting, said he and his wife were looking forward to hearing from the minister as since the death of their child they have not even heard a “nice word” from the minister or his ministry. He said they were still “very emotional” over the death of their eldest child and only daughter. And even though his wife, Vanessa, had returned to her teaching job at the school it was very difficult for her.
De Souza took issue with the minister’s attempt to prevent them from accepting the donation of toilets from the Alliance For Change (AFC) pointing out that they should be able to accept donations from anyone or any organisation as their children lives were at risk. “We can’t get back our child,” he noted, but added that they were concerned for their other two children who attend the school and the pupil population as a whole.
According to De Souza, there were still some parents who were skeptical about what direction they should take in relation to accepting donations because of the minister’s directive.
The PTA had issued a release indicating that it was seeking donations to build sanitary blocks at the school and the AFC responded that it would donate the toilet bowls and other items, including plumbing material, to the school.
Atkinson said he hoped the members of the body would rally around and once again stressed that there was nothing political in the move to get assistance to build toilets for their children as they were only thinking of their well-being.
But the offer did not have a favourable reception from Baksh, who, at a press conference, said the AFC would not be allowed to donate to the school unless it got permission from the school management, the education department, the regional administration and ultimately the Ministry of Education. The minister had said that while his ministry accepts assistance from international bodies and non-governmental organisations it “would not allow the AFC to use this as a political agenda for their political objectives and goals to go into these schools and do what they want.” He further stated said that the party would have to work along with the established system and should not be “jumping on the bandwagon wildly.
“This is a matter concerning the health [and] safety of schoolchildren in Guyana which I as minister and the Ministry of Education have deepest concern for and we would work tirelessly to ensure the safety and health of the school population,” the minister had stated.
Following the minister’s statement Atkinson had said his body would accept donations from the AFC and any other organsiation or individual since they had made a public appeal. “This is not a political issue. My only concern is for the 700 children at the school… We asked for assistance and if the AFC or anyone comes forward with assistance we would accept it,” the man had told Stabroek News.
The AFC handed over the items to representatives from the PTA last Friday when members visited the community.
Atkinson yesterday said they have every intention of using the items from the AFC to construct the sanitary blocks. He said he did not see any politics in the donation, adding there were several small businesses in the area willing to assist but now they want to hear from the minister.
At the press conference the minister had also stated that $1 million was donated to the school under the Education For All-Fast Track Initiative Programme (EFA-FTI), to be used to build additional classrooms and a sanitary block.
Yesterday Atkinson said the head of the school indicated that the money would be used to purchase six toilet bowls but he gave no indication about whether a sanitary block would be built.
The PTA had last week told this newspaper that the money was only made available recently, after the death of the child.
He had said there were promises before but the money was not handed over.
The minister had said that Santa Rosa was one of the 15 schools that benefited from the improvement part of the EFA-FTI project.
Atkinson had also said the money was handed over and it was placed in the bank as the PTA was awaiting more donations to build the sanitary block, since the money was inadequate. “There is a circular that states that for every 30 children in a school there should be one toilet. So if you calculate this number by 700 then you would see that we are talking about over 20 toilets… that money cannot build [the] sanitary block and extend the school.”
He maintained this yesterday noting that six toilets would be woefully inadequate and they would still have to seek donations to ensure that their children had adequate toilet facilities at the school.
