With the end of the school year on Friday, the children of St Lawrence and the other villages following it, along the East Bank of the Essequibo River, will have a two-month respite from traversing the deplorable main access road.
Recent visits by Stabroek News to the area saw huge water-filled potholes which many schoolchildren had to walk along without shoes. The reason was that in some sections, the pothole covered the entire road and there was just no place to walk but in the water. Schoolchildren carried their shoes along in their bags or in their hands as they could only be worn at school.
Many of the students, mostly those attending Secondary School often failed to get to school on time, owing to transportation woes.
The main access road along East Bank Essequibo, starting at St Lawrence has been plagued with this situation for a number of years. Residents have expressed disgust and frustration. Recently, several villagers who do not have their own transportation and must walk long distances to get public transportation, seemed resigned to doing so.
Although the road had seen numerous repairs over the years, even recently just before the recently held general and regional elections, the life of the repairs is usually short and the road quickly regresses to its former state.
St Lawrence is a farming community, which has seen some residents being able to
