Gov’t not doing enough to fix Union Island schools — MP

Southern Grenadines MP, Terrance Ollivierre is accusing the government of not trying hard enough to ensure that schools on Union Island were ready for students when classes were slated to resume this week after Hurricane Beryl on July 1.

Ollivierre said that the government was more focused on preparing the temporary campus at Arnos Vale, where less than half of the students from the storm-ravaged island have opted to continue their education.

As of Wednesday, less than 200 of the estimated 450 students from Union Island were taking classes at the temporary campus, located at the former Teachers’ College in Arnos Vale.

A number of the students have enrolled in other schools in St. Vincent, but the government has not disclosed that figure, saying it was still verifying the numbers.

However, students at the Union Island Secondary School returned to classes on Wednesday, while their primary school counterparts on the island have to wait to continue their education.

On Tuesday, Ollivierre, an opposition lawmaker, said that he had visited earlier that day the Union Island Secondary School, which would also house students of the Mary Hutchinson and Stephanie Browne primary schools, who have opted to continue their education on Union Island.

The primary school pupils on Union Island as well as those taking classes in St. Vincent, will return to their respective campuses when repair or reconstruction work is complete

“I must report that they are trying to open. I’m using the word ‘trying’. They are trying to open tomorrow. They have been told by the Ministry of Education that the opening of schools is tomorrow,” Ollivierre said on his New Democratic Party’s show on NICE Radio on Tuesday.

“But, checking the environment, you can clearly see that lots of work has to be done. As a matter of fact, they are just cleaning the environment,” he said.

Ollivierre said a team of workers that travels daily from Canouan, another storm-ravaged southern Grenadine island, was “trying to do the cleaning and preparation of the school.

“You have other people who are there trying — the ground is just being cleared. You have the fence, which is on the ground,” he said, adding that a section of the fence was removed because of the storm damage.

“And if anybody should fall from there, it’s about a 20-foot drop to the ground. And you’re having primary school students there at that institution, which you plan to open tomorrow, and up to now, that hasn’t been fixed,” Ollivierre said.

He said there were eight to 10 plastic water tanks on the ground and someone was just trying to install them so they could be filled with water for the reopening of the schools on Wednesday.

“VINLEC is there trying to work in the area,” he said, referring to the state-owned electricity generation and distribution company.

Ollivierre said some of the poles were leaned and there was no electricity.

“And I’m not sure that they’ll be able to fix the poles and to run the wires so that there can be electricity at the school. They’re also trying to work on a generator to see what power can be provided for the opening of the school.”

At the same time, the government was trying to fix the generator, which has not been working for a “long time” even as it is vital for pumping water from the cistern to the bathrooms at the school.

The MP noted that schools in St. Vincent and the Grenadines closed on July 2, three days early because of the impact of the hurricane.

He noted that he had given Parliament suggestions on how the government could have repaired the schools on Union Island in time for the new academic year.

“They talk about bringing the children up here (St. Vincent). And I said, what you need to do is to fix the Union Island Secondary School because it can be fixed. And I stated what I saw at this school, and how easy it can be to fix the school,” Ollivierre said.

He said the government, however, insisted on having students from Union Island continue their education in St. Vincent.

“… you spend the money, millions of dollars … to fix up the old, former Teacher’s College in order to accommodate students, whereas the work for the people, for the schools in Union Island work very slow,” Ollivierre said.

He noted that the government has begun work to convert the Mary Hutchinson Primary School from a plywood to a concrete structure after the hurricane damaged it.

But Ollivierre also pointed out that the people were against building a plywood school in the first place.

“… you neglected the work on the Stephanie Brown Primary, which only needed the roof to be fixed.

“From since that time to now, the roof at the Stephanie Browne Primary has not been fixed,” Ollivierre said.

He said that when some people who opted to remain on Union Island saw no work was being done on the Stephanie Brown Primary School, they thought that no classes would take place on Union Island and decided to move to St. Vincent.

“Why is it that everything on Union Island has been so slow in doing the work to accommodate people on Union Island, but everything on mainland to accommodate these children, you run helter-skelter trying to do it and neglect the fixing of the schools on the island?” Ollivierre said.

He said the repair of the Union Island Secondary School should have been finished.

“There’s so many (sic) work to be done at the school, which is to house the three schools, the secondary and the two primary schools here at this moment, and we are talking about education and that we are ready, and you care about people. Is this how you care about people?”

He noted that the secondary and primary schools in Canouan schools open on Monday.

“Today, at Union Island, it’s a different situation. They are really trying to see if they can open tomorrow, but I doubt it. Things will be hard because of the lack of interest and the lack of work on the school,” he said.