The eye-opening assessment of all 24 school dormitories in Guyana, which was commissioned by the Ministry of Education and funded by UNICEF in partnership with the Canadian High Commission underscores a deeper disquieting issue that has long been of concern – the lack of equitability of rights afforded to citizens. There is a sliding scale that unfortunately has endured through many different administrations. Children are toward the end of that scale and now it is evident that indigenous children are at the very bottom. The facts are incisive.
Dating back to 2007, there have been three fires in school dormitories predominantly populated by children of First Nations peoples. In total, 23 children have died. How many scores or more are traumatised may never be fully known. The first two fires saw no changes made. A year ago, the UNICEF funded field study of school dormitories cited fire safety failings and recommendations were made for improvements. Again, nothing changed. Over the last six months, two inspections at the Mahdia dormitory, the scene of last month’s unspeakable tragedy, highlighted urgent problems that required modification, to no avail.
Although the disturbing lack of fire safety at school dorms is perhaps the most prominent concern, it is not the only one. The dearth of basic facilities at these buildings is beyond appalling. The ‘Assessment Report – Field Study of Dormitory Plants…Development of Gender Sensitive Standards for Dormitory Schools in Guyana’, cited poor health and safety measures; overcrowding; water sanitation and power deficiencies, based on interviews with the staff and students resident there.
The children particularly spoke of poor ventilation, not enough toilets and showers, and the need for lounges – spaces where they might sit, relax, interact and also possibly do homework or study. They also pleaded for internet access and computers. Their caregivers pointed to the deficit of indoor recreational conveniences, like board games or televisions. Additionally, one cannot help but wonder how many, if any, of these establishments offer their residents books to read; not school texts, but novels by which they could widen their knowledge and vocabulary.
The abhorrent conditions under which children have been and continue to be boarded in order to acquire an education are an indictment on the current and every past administration from the time the first atrocious dorm was built. All of those in authority who knew that these glorified barns existed and did not press relentlessly for change should hang their heads in shame. While the UNICEF report offers hard data, there is every likelihood that there is also anecdotal evidence – complaints from students and staff that would have also been made long before the study was commissioned.
Guyana signed and ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, recognising that children have the right to health, education, family life, play and recreation, an adequate standard of living and to be protected from abuse and harm. The ratification acknowledges that all children are entitled to these rights, regardless of who they are, where they live, what language they speak, their religion, appearance or gender.
Placing children in accommodations that are dangerous to their physical and mental health, with conditions that are so abominably inadequate they could affect their ability to learn, removes some of these basic human rights. Since the children in these dire straits are predominantly indigenous then the practice is discriminatory, whether intentionally or from a place of ignorance or lack of empathy.
There is no government official – past or present – who would place their children in these dormitories, even as an experiment; and that says it all. The relegation of children in general, and indigenous children in particular to near invisibility is incompatible with the ‘because we care’, ‘one Guyana’, and all of the other catchphrases fed to Guyanese over the years.
The point is that if these words are really purposive, the fact that regional officials hold the ultimate responsibility for ensuring school dormitories are liveable should not matter; except that it allows for passing the buck. Minister of Education Priya Manickchand or any government official, once aware of the reprehensible conditions under which our children abide, even now, should have done more than a Pontius Pilate hand washing. The so-called relevant parties ought to have been constantly taken to task and the situation raised with their superiors, going as high as necessary.
In its Tuesday edition, this newspaper quoted a “source” who claimed that the Ministry of Education, in the face of the intransigence of the relevant parties, was taking action to upgrade some dorms. If this is indeed the case, it’s a start but not enough. At this stage, all dormitories should be overhauled with alacrity and in keeping with building codes and human rights. This is not a project that should be dragged out over the next ten years. Our children have suffered enough.
