By Rayon Dyer, Gleaner WriterBLACK RIVER: PRINCIPAL OF the St. Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS), Dorothy Samuda, says she is not happy with most things at her school going into the new school year beginning Monday.
"We are short of approximately 100 chairs, we are faced with leaky roof, we are very fearful that sections of the decked roof and the administrative block might cave in, because the concrete is falling off. The people at the Ministry said there was no money, so I don't know what we are going to do", Mrs. Samuda told The Gleaner in an interview on Tuesday.
She said that she wasn't satisfied because the general school building is badly in need of repairs and maintenance.
PAYING RENT
"By this I mean the school cottages, which include nine houses and nine flatlets, are urgently in need of repairs. While the teachers have to be paying rent for these facilities, some of the roofs are leaking while some have no water on the inside", the principal lamented.
Mrs. Samuda also explained to The Gleaner that while the Ministry has fell down on its promises that chairs and desks would have been delivered to the institution to meet the shortage in the new school year, the school is yet to receive them. She said that during the early part of the summer holidays the students from the woodwork department came to the school and repaired a number of desks and chairs. That she added will definitely help to ease the shortage.
According to Vice Principal of Newell High School, Barbara Blair, "things are far from well at the institution going into the new school year. We are short on 300 chairs, we need at least six more classrooms, registration of the students is going slow, the parents are saying that they cannot afford to pay the school fee, which is $5,500 and $1,300 for insurance".
She said the school needs urgent attention and several requests were sent to the Ministry of Education as it relates to the overall situation at the school. However nothing has been don.
