By Svetlana Marshall

AFTER hours of negotiations, a decision was made to have students remain at the Brickdam Secondary School until the end of this academic year.

STATE-OF-THE-ART SECONDARY SCHOOL

The agreement was reached on Wednesday following the assurance of the Education Ministry that a new location will be identified to accommodate the school for the new academic year as a medium-term solution. But in the long run, the Ministry is expected to construct a state-of-the-art secondary school to accommodate approximately 1,000 students of the school.

Already, the process of acquiring a plot of land to construct the building that will house both Brickdam Secondary and Central High School has commenced.

Chief Education Officer (CEO), Olato Sam disclosed details of the decision made during a press conference held at the Education Ministry, in the presence of the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Brickdam Secondary School, Nicolas Yearwood; President of the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), Eric Benjamin and Cheryl Sampson, an advisor to the Ministry – all of whom participated in the negotiation.

“The teachers have formally agreed to this…,” the CEO said as he addressed reporters. Last Friday, more than 28 teachers attached to the Brickdam Secondary School staged a sit-in to protest the deplorable state of the school.

By Monday, the CEO had ruled that the “Brickdam (Secondary) is no more,” and as such students and teachers would have been relocated to a number of schools in Georgetown as a short-term solution. However, this decision was sternly rejected by the teachers and even parents, who continued their industrial action up until the agreement was reached on Wednesday afternoon.

In chronicling the situation on behalf of the Education Ministry, Sam explained that on June 9, Education Minister, Dr Rupert Roopnaraine received a letter from the teachers of Brickdam Secondary, in which they requested an audience with him to discuss a number of issues.

According to the CEO, the Education Minister had agreed to meet with the teachers on June 10 at 10:00hrs.

“The Ministry received information approximately 9:15hrs on Friday, June 10, 2016 that despite their appointment to meet with the Honorable Minister, the teachers of Brickdam Secondary were engaged in a sit-in,” he stated.

Upon learning of the situation, the Chief Education Officer said he made a visit to the school and engaged the teachers during which he pointed out that such “extreme action ran contrary to established procedure in getting matters resolved.”

Later that day, the CEO along with the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary Pulandar Kandhi, the advisor, the Chief Buildings Engineer and officers of the Georgetown Department of Education met with the teachers and representatives from the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) to address the issues.

According to the CEO, the parties involved had agreed to allow the engineer to address the more immediate issues that had been raised, while allowing the Ministry to devise a plan of action for the relocation of the school at the commencement of the new academic year while a more long-term solution was being sought.

During that meeting the teachers were asked to complete the term at the current location to allow the Ministry to institute the new plan.

“Rehabilitation work commenced on Saturday June 11, 2016 at Brickdam Secondary and the Head-teacher engaged the Ministry on the morning of Monday June 13, 2016 to devise strategies to facilitate the completion of the term at the location. Unfortunately, the teachers failed to honour the agreement arrived at and continued their industrial action, refusing to teach until they were placed in a completely new environment,” he said.

Sam also stated that as a result of the position taken by the teachers, the Ministry was forced to devise another plan of action to facilitate students completing their end-of-year assessments, while meeting the demands of the teachers.

“As such, teachers were assigned to other schools in Georgetown, while students were assigned to the following List A schools: North Georgetown Secondary, Christ Church Secondary and North Ruimveldt Multilateral as a temporary measure, until a more permanent solution could be devised,” he further explained.

And given the most recent decision to have the students remain at the school until the end of the term, Sam assured that the Ministry is doing its best to meet the medium and long-term plans identified.

However, the teachers on Wednesday morning had a different story to tell about the reason behind their industrial action. Besides requesting a single building to house both teachers and students of Brickdam Secondary, the teachers said they had grown tired of the situation having complained bitterly about the issues for many years.

LONGSTANDING ISSUE
One of the teachers pointed out that since 2013, the Education Ministry had promised to construct a new school but three years later this plan is yet to be made a reality.

“This has been an issue for more than 20 years. There are teachers at this institution who were students and are now teachers, and this poor state of the school was always a problem. Under the other administration, we met, they made a decision and they said to us that they would have relocated us, this was since 2013,” the teacher said as she complained bitterly.

According to this teacher, who received the backing of her colleagues, Brickdam Secondary School has been neglected by the Education Ministry.

But Sam, who started his stint as CEO under the previous Administration, refuted the claims made.

“As I mention we have been trying to address this issue for some time, the major stumbling block was the availability of land in Georgetown to facilitate the state-of-the-art school that is going to house well over a thousand students, that is the major stumbling block in this process.

There has been no lack of political will or interest in moving these two institutions, but one has recognized that finding land in Georgetown to erect such a structure has been a challenge for us,” the Chief Education Officer said.

Although the Ministry is in the process of acquiring a lot of land to construct a new school, Sam was unable to give particulars, such as the location or when construction will commence.