Padarath Urges Gadsby-Dolly to Address School Readiness Amid Issues

Princes Town MP, Barry Padarath has issued a call for Education Minister, Nyan Gadsby-Dolly to advise the country ahead of the reopening of the next school term which is scheduled for the first week in September, the state of readiness of the nation’s schools specifically addressing the issue of school repairs, mitigating against the Dengue outbreak and school violence.

Padarath stated that several schools in his constituency have been complaining and requesting assistance from his constituency office for material and supplies to address the crumbling infrastructure. He further stated that throughout the academic year, many schools across the country have reported that there was little or no maintenance to their buildings, often forcing them to abandon sections of the school for fear of teachers and students being physically injured as a result.

The MP said that with just 2 weeks to go before the reopening of the school term, the Minister and the government should have been actively engaged in ensuring that school repairs were at an advanced stage, however little or nothing was being said by the Minister of Education. He further questioned whether some schools would remain closed as a result of delays in school repairs.

In light of the current Dengue outbreak affecting several parts of the country, Padarath said that as MPs, particularly those in rural areas where schools are in close proximity to water courses and where regional corporations and insect vector units have been starved of resources to spray for mosquitoes, schools that have been closed for two months need to be sprayed ahead of their reopening.

Padarath is calling on Gadsby-Dolly, Health Minister Terrance Deyalsingh and Local Government Minister Faris Al-Rawi to urgently take steps to ensure all schools are sprayed for mosquitoes ahead of the reopening of schools as well as to have the schools regularly inspected and sprayed to mitigate the challenges of the Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes from being bred in the compound of our nation’s schools. Padarath added that recently, the death and treatment of eight year old Sophia Narine in Moruga/Tableland has left parents steeply concerned and worried.

The Princes Town MP reminded the Minister of Education that one of the major concerns in the education sector has been the scourge of violence in our nation’s schools. He called on the Minister to say ahead of the reopening of the school term what mitigating measures will be put in place to address this critical issue. Padarath said while the government has not articulated specific plans or policies to deal with this problem, we can very well see a repeat of an upsurge of school violence when school is reopened. He has called on Gadsby-Dolly to articulate how many guidance counselors and police officers will be deployed in our nation’s schools.

Padarath supported the position of UNC leader Kamla Persad Bissessar to put police officers in the nation’s schools in an effort to curb school violence. He stated that drastic times require drastic action and the government needed to have a plan ahead of the reopening of the school term to address these critical issues. He reiterated his call for the Minister of Education to break her silence and telegraph to the national community how she intends on dealing with these issues ahead of September 2nd, 2024.