New reports submitted to MP Odessa Primus allege teacher shortages, overcrowding, unsafe conditions, transport difficulties, school violence and problems with the breakfast programme, even as the Ministry moves complaints into a new internal digital system
GEORGETOWN, Guyana: Less than two weeks after Education Minister Sonia Parag declared that 99 per cent of Guyana’s approximately 1,200 public schools were ready for the new academic year, complaints from parents, teachers and other citizens continue to reach Opposition Member of Parliament Hon. Odessa Primus.
The Minister’s precise claim was that only about one per cent of schools were not fully ready for reopening because of ongoing works, with alternative arrangements made for affected students. She specifically described readiness as including functional washrooms, running water, safe gutters, clean surroundings and adequate furniture. (News Source Guyana)
Yet the complaints have continued. Village Voice News previously reported on problems submitted to Primus from schools across at least five regions, including teacher shortages, overcrowding, extreme classroom heat, sanitation problems, unfinished dormitories and concerns about the treatment of children. Since that report, additional complaints have emerged involving schools and issues not detailed in that initial report.
The allegations have not all been independently verified, and they should not be treated as established findings against individual schools, teachers or administrators. But their persistence raises a legitimate question: if 99 per cent of schools were ready, why are parents and teachers still reporting so many basic problems after reopening?
Westminster Secondary: parents allege inadequate staffing
At Westminster Secondary School in La Parfaite Harmonie, West Bank Demerara, a complaint submitted to Primus alleges that there are insufficient teachers and that students are sometimes left without adequate supervision or instruction.
The complainant appealed for intervention, arguing that parents and government are investing heavily in preparing children for school while students are arriving at classrooms where there are reportedly not enough teachers to teach them.
Teacher shortages are particularly important because a school can be physically open, furnished and cleaned while still being educationally unprepared. A functioning school requires teachers in front of its students.
Central High: relocation brings transportation burden
Parents of students attending Central High School have raised a different problem. The school is operating from the Cyril Potter College of Education while its Princess Street facility is being rebuilt.
One parent told Primus that families were initially informed that the temporary arrangement would last approximately one year, but students are now entering a second year at the temporary location.
The parent says transportation has become a serious burden. Her daughter reportedly pays approximately $160 for transportation in the morning, while some operators demand $200 in the afternoon. The parent says there is no convenient school transportation arrangement serving the route and argues that students should not bear the financial and practical consequences of a prolonged relocation.
The complaint raises a question that goes beyond Central High. When government relocates a school for an extended period, who assumes responsibility for the additional transportation burden imposed on families?
St. Mary’s Primary: disturbing allegation over breakfast programme
A new complaint concerning St. Mary’s Primary raises questions about the administration of the school’s breakfast programme.
A parent alleges that children were served channa that smelled spoiled while some workers took portions of fries, sausage and boiled eggs for themselves and allegedly packed food to take away. According to the complaint, when two children returned the channa because they believed it was spoiled, their concern was dismissed.
These are serious allegations and require investigation rather than assumption. The Ministry should establish what food was supplied that morning, how it was stored, who was responsible for distribution, whether any food was removed from the school and whether complaints about spoiled food were made.
School feeding programmes exist for children, including children who may leave home very early and arrive at school depending on that meal. Food safety and the integrity of distribution therefore require proper oversight.
Central Corentyne Secondary: reported stabbing
Another report submitted to Primus alleges that a Grade 7 student stabbed a Grade 9 student at Central Corentyne Secondary School.
Village Voice News has not independently established the circumstances of the reported incident. Given the seriousness of the allegation and the ages of the students involved, however, the Ministry should clarify whether an incident occurred, the condition of the student involved, what disciplinary and safeguarding measures were taken and whether weapons or other dangerous objects are becoming a wider concern in schools.
Enterprise Primary: dispute over access to school stairway
At Enterprise Primary School on the East Coast Demerara, a parent has complained about access to the school’s main staircase.
The parent alleges that the front stairs leading to the upper floor are effectively reserved for teachers, forcing most parents and children to use two narrower rear staircases. She further alleges that she was confronted aggressively when attempting to accompany her child up the front staircase to a classroom.
There may be a legitimate administrative or safety reason for controlling movement through different parts of a school. If so, that policy should be clearly communicated to parents and applied consistently. The Ministry should therefore establish whether the restriction exists, why it exists and whether the alternative routes provide safe and reasonable access for children.
St. Margaret’s Primary: parents reportedly asked to help buy a fan
At St. Margaret’s Primary School, a parent complained that a classroom has no fan and that parents were being asked to contribute towards purchasing one.
On its own, a missing fan might appear minor compared with structural or sanitation problems. In Guyana’s heat, however, classroom ventilation directly affects the environment in which children are expected to concentrate and learn.
It also raises a straightforward question: should parents at a public school have to contribute money to provide basic classroom ventilation?
A complaints system appears after the complaints
There is another development that deserves scrutiny.
After Primus began publicly receiving and highlighting complaints from parents and teachers, the Ministry of Education launched a new digital system for reporting school problems.
The Ministry says the platform was developed under Minister Parag’s instructions and will allow school officials to submit problems involving areas such as water, sanitation and infrastructure, attach photographs and indicate urgency. Reports are then transmitted simultaneously to district and regional education officials, the Regional Executive Officer and the Ministry. Four Ministry officers have reportedly been assigned to monitor submissions and follow up with the regions. (Kaieteur News)
On its face, that is a sensible administrative response. A modern education system should have a central database showing every reported problem, when it was reported, who was assigned responsibility and whether it was resolved.
But there is an important problem with the design as publicly described.
This does not appear to be a public complaints portal for parents and students. Access is described as being through official school email accounts for headteachers, principals and teachers in charge. The Chief Education Officer has gone further, saying the system is intended to become mandatory and that it will be the “only channel” through which school officials report issues. (Kaieteur News)
That creates legitimate accountability questions. What happens when the complaint concerns the school’s own administration? What happens when a headteacher does not agree that a problem should be reported? Can a parent see whether a complaint has actually been entered? Can the public see how many unresolved complaints exist in each region? Is there a complaint number? Is there a deadline? Can the person who raised the issue see whether it has been classified as resolved?
The Ministry’s public forms hub does contain school-issue reporting tools, but the information publicly visible does not amount to a transparent dashboard showing all complaints, their status, time outstanding and resolution. (Ministry of Education Forms)
That matters because the Ministry previously established a Resolution Desk specifically intended to provide an “open, accessible, and transparent complaint management system” for students, teachers and parents, with complaints reportedly to be addressed within 24 hours. (Ministry of Education)
The Ministry therefore needs to explain how the new system improves upon what already existed.
Complaints should not disappear into a database
There is no evidence presently establishing that the new platform was created to stop people from complaining to Primus, the timing, however, makes questions about transparency entirely reasonable.
The solution to public complaints is not to make complaints less public. It is to fix the problems. Indeed, before schools reopened, Parag instructed education officials that, “We must not have any complaints when schools are reopened.” (Ministry of Education) That statement now looks particularly important.
A target of having no complaints cannot mean creating a system in which complaints become invisible. A successful complaints system is one that makes problems easier to identify, assigns responsibility, records how long they remain outstanding and demonstrates that they were actually resolved.
The Ministry should therefore consider publishing a simple dashboard, without identifying children or complainants, showing the number of complaints received by region, the category of complaint, date received, number resolved, number outstanding and average resolution time.
Then the public would not have to choose between the Ministry’s account and complaints reaching an opposition MP. There would be data. The continuing reports being submitted to Primus do not prove that Guyana’s entire school system is failing, nor does a problem at one school establish conditions at another. What they do demonstrate is that the declaration of 99 per cent readiness cannot be the end of the conversation.
A school may have opened its doors on September 1 and still have no teacher for a class. A classroom may contain furniture and still be unbearably hot. A relocated school may technically be functioning while families struggle to get their children there. A breakfast programme may exist on paper while parents question what children are actually being served.
Readiness is not measured by whether the school gate opened. It is measured by what children encounter after they walk through it.
