| – Ministry to investigateThe Ministry of Education is investigating the operations of the Itabali Primary School following complaints by parents of students there about the grossly inadequate staff.The parents had contacted this newspaper and informed that there are presently only three teachers to the 150 students at the institution.The situation was compounded when two of the three teachers reported sick for the whole of last week.Minister within the Ministry of Education, Dr. Desrey Fox,Bryan Bickell Jersey, told this newspaper that the situation is very unfortunate and the Regional Education Office, Region Seven has been mandated to look into the matter.Itabali is a small community in the Mazaruni River, a short distance by boat from Bartica.According to the parents, the situation is very inconveniencing, since on many occasions their children were forced to return home from school without being taught anything.Sometimes this is the situation for days,Jerseys From China, they said.Kaieteur News understands that some of the students travel long distances by boat to attend school and the fact that entire days are spent without tutoring is a cause for concern,China Jerseys Wholesale, the parents said.In many cases after traveling significant distances, parents have to revert to taking their children back home because of the absence of teachers.The school is staffed by five teachers. However, two of them have gone off to attend the Cyril Potter College of Education.Donett Jones, who has three children attending the school,Babe Ruth Jersey, told this newspaper that it makes very little sense sending her children to school since they are often times unsupervised.She stated that the children of the community are at a great disadvantage to their counterparts in other parts of Guyana.“They don’t do anything in school except play around whole day. When the children here write the Grade Six Assessment Examinations they are all failing because they are encountering things that they never studied before,” one told this newspaper.She explained that she was forced to transfer her eldest son to Leguan where it was discovered that he was way behind children of his own age there.According to Jones, her son is now attending secondary school on Leguan.“It’s not that the children are dunces,Paul Kariya Ducks Throwback Jersey, but the teachers are not paying much attention to them,” she said.Another parent disclosed that he too was forced to transfer his son to Bartica where the child is now attending secondary school.“If 25 children write the Grade Six examination, sometimes only two are passing.This area is big and there could be a lot of illiterate children in the not too distant future,Custom Chicago Bulls Jerseys,” the parent said.When contacted yesterday, Minister Desrey Fox told this newspaper that the matter was brought to the Ministry’s attention only a few days ago.According to Minister Fox, the Deputy Chief Education Officer (Administration) is looking into the matter.“Sometimes when there is no supervision the teachers take advantage. I understand the concerns of the parents. It is a crisis situation. It is very unfortunate, because the people will call me directly,” the Minister told this newspaper.She said that in the interim, the Ministry is hoping that the school’s parent-teacher association could help out the situation.However, according to one parent, while PTA members are willing to do voluntary supervision and some tutoring, they are sometimes frustrated by the attitude of some students towards them.“The PTA had suggested this before but the children ignored the volunteers because they know them from the community.This sometimes can be frustrating because disciplining students can be a problem,” the parent said. |
