Shadow Minister of Education Coretta McDonald on Monday rapped the Ali Government for failing to appoint an international independent commission to investigate the circumstances surrounding the dormitory fire that claimed the lives of 20 children in Mahdia on May 21st,2023.
According to the Opposition Parliamentarian, the report submitted on January 19th this year by the Mahdia Commission of Inquiry into the tragic incident is a cover-up aimed at obscuring the responsibilities of Education Minister Priya Manickchand.
But Manickchand in response to McDonald cited the inquiry’s report which she said cast blame on former Education Minister Dr Rupert Roopnaraine who served under the APNU+AFC government back in 2015.
“The Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the Mahdia Secondary School dormitory fire found that no action was taken by the previous government regarding dorms despite this being flagged following a report in 2017 on the education sector”, Manickchand told the National Assembly on Monday.
She said if the former administration cared about the well-being of the nation’s children they would not have allowed the state of dormitories to deteriorate, locally.
“The report stated that, so anyone to be blamed is the APNU+AFC, Mr. Speaker”.
According to the Mahdia CoI report, there was grave neglect of duty bordering on recklessness by those vested with power for the care and welfare of the country’s children residing in dormitories.
The report which the Education Minister briefly referenced on Monday was flagged in the Mahdia COI report into the dorm fire.
The report, titled “Commission of Inquiry into the Education Sector of Guyana Preliminary Report” was intended to establish a baseline analysis of the state of public education in Guyana and to provide recommendations of broad strategic guidelines for the enhancement of public education. That Commission of Inquiry comprised Ed Caesar, a former Chief Education Officer; Ronald Austin (Jnr); Jennifer Dewar (who represented the religious organizations); Lance Hinds (an IT specialist); and Ramesh Persaud (a representative of the private sector). These individuals were assisted by a team of technical and administrative officials.
That commission conducted 99 consultations throughout Guyana, received 50 written submissions, and tabled its Preliminary Report to the Minister of Education on 28 April 2017. The report placed high emphasis on the deplorable state of student dormitories and made recommendations that they should be addressed. It stated that attention must be paid to the level and quality of supervision in dorm facilities, the Mahdia CoI was told.
It also reported that in general, ‘House Parents’ were not trained for their tasks, had too many students to oversee, and were being taken advantage of. The report also found that the issues raised were most present among secondary school students, who were facing the most challenging times of their lives and required greater care and supervision.
Manickchand had been Minister of Education between 2011 and 2015, prior to the commissioning of the Caesar report. Furthermore, the PPP/C has occupied government for 26 of the last 31 years.
McDonald maintained that she has no confidence in the report submitted by the inquiry’s chairman Major General (retired) Joseph Singh.
“We were not confident that this report would place the blame where it needs to be, squarely at the feet of the Minister of Education. Sir, the doctrine of ministerial responsibility is clear: it is a
fundamental constitutional principle in the Westminster Parliamentary System according to which ministers are responsible to the parliament for the conduct of their ministry and government as a whole. Ministerial responsibility is central to the parliamentary system, because it ensures the accountability of the government to the legislature and thus, ultimately, to the population. [But] We suspect that the report has been tailored to suit the political aims of this government”, the Shadow Education Minister posited.
McDonald reminded the house “Before the fire UNICEF and the Guyana Fire Service had submitted reports to the government warning them about the safety dormitories across the country to correct risk but these were ignored by the Ministry of Education”.
Though it said that a well-equipped building would not have changed the circumstances regarding the Mahdia dorm fire which claimed 20 lives, the Commission of Inquiry’s report into the inferno on May 21st, 2023 however slammed Chief Fire Officer Gregory Wickham and former Regional Education Officer Anesta Douglas of Potaro-Siparuni for dereliction of their duties.
The Commission heard that on 7th February 2023, an inspection was carried out at the Mahdia Dormitory facility by Sub Officer Ryan Scott of the Mahdia Fire Station. Following this inspection, Scott prepared a report which he addressed to Wickham and copied to Regional Education Officer (ReDO) Douglas.
From the evidence before it, the CoI said it was satisfied that the report was submitted to and personally received by both the Chief Fire Officer (CFO) and ReDO.
The CoI said that Scott’s report sets out a list of deficiencies associated with the Mahdia dormitories. It stated that for the dormitory buildings, there was a complete absence of any fire prevention system.
The CoI report added that Wickham confirmed to the Commission that at all material times, he received the Scott report.
However, McDonald said that what the inquiry did was scapegoating Wickham and Douglas while the education ministry is neither implicated nor held accountable for their nonchalance towards the situation.
“Instead what we have is the usual denials and attempts to escape responsibility by the Ministry of Education while scapegoating the fire chief and former REdO”.
The Shadow Education Minister said that once elected in 2025 the APNU+AFC will review the matter and make proper restitution that will respect the magnitude of the loss and sorrow experienced by the grieving families of the children who perished.
Meanwhile Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn, yesterday proposed that there be a Victims Awareness Day in remembrance of those who tragically died in the Mahdia fire.
“We will have all the photos of the young people and the flowers at all fire stations across the country at the Ministry of Home Affairs and the site of the Mahdia dorm fire”, Benn announced.
