– Minister Dharamlall

AN investigation into the shortage of food supplies at the Desrey Caesar-Fox Secondary School in Waramadong was launched by the officials from the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) in Cuyuni Mazaruni and the Ministry of Education (MoE), following poor meals being served at the school.

Over the weekend, a post surfaced on Facebook of pictures purported to be food being served to students housed at the dormitory of the Waramadong Secondary in Region Seven. The images mainly displayed plates of “shine” rice.

However, Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall, noted that supplies were not requested, and the situation had since been rectified.

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle, Minister Dharamlall, noted that the situation was due to a breakdown in timely communication and was an isolated situation.

“This is the only school that has this problem, so it is obvious there was some breakdown in communication. This is not something that is regular. We have 14 plus dorms across the country, and this is the only one that it happened at,” Dharamlall explained during a telephone interview.

He continued: “Far as I’m aware, food has [since] been sent in to the village. It’s a system where the head teacher would make the request of the RDC for procurement, and up to Friday last, the head teacher did not make any request [for anything] except flour,” Dharamlall said.

Dharamalall related that a team from the MoE and the Region were in Waramadong and came out last Friday.

He noted that, in addition to food supplies, fuel had also been sent to the school

“To all intents and purposes it’s a one-off situation that has already been rectified. It really was a breakdown in communication in that the headteacher did not make her requisition in time. It is incumbent on the headteacher to make the request on time and not wait until the last minute. The request has to be made much earlier because a lot of these things are perishable and we procure based on a request at least a few days before. Outside of that they have the dry ration,” the Minister further said.

According to the Minister, steps were taken to source the food supplies from within the community. However, after it was determined that the requisite supplies could not be procured from the village it was sent in from outside of the community.

Also speaking with the Guyana Chronicle, Regional Chairman, Kenneth Williams, noted that steps were being put in place to avoid any such future occurrence

“We recognise that nothing of that sort should ever be happening to our children; they are too important to us and too important to our future. It should not occur again. We investigated to see where the loopholes are. We have gotten an idea of where the problems lie, and we’re doing our best to make sure that we do not have a recurrence of the situation,” he noted.