ESHS students out of order; Tent schools not serving purpose entirely- Hon Walwyn
But there was a twist of tongue on Sunday December 17, 2017 when nothing but frustration was Honourable Walwyn's tone as he complained bitterly of the problems the Education Ministry is grappling with, especially with the high school students - The Elmore Stoutt High School in particular.
He told residents of the First District that the children are wreaking havoc in Road Town. At the time he was in Carrot Bay, at the Carrot Bay Methodist Church on the invitation of First District Representative and Leader of the Opposition Honourable Andrew A. Fahie (R1), who has been keeping weekly community meetings with his constituents.
“The children are wreaking havoc in town. These fights are happening all over the place and so on. It’s not very good,” said Hon Walwyn as he noted that he is very concerned about it.
There are countless complaints of students in and out of school uniforms engaging in armed and unarmed fights, gang activities, smoking and supplying peers with marijuana, shoplifting, young girls in compromising positions, especially after the afternoon shift with older men and much more.
While some residents expressed similar concern about most of the same issues, businesses in close proximity to the school have been taking to Facebook complaining about these issues as well as bareface littering and destroying and removing items from some properties.
The situation is so serious that the Management of Roadtown Wholesale has requested a meeting with the Minister of Education.
“They summoned me to a meeting because children are getting themselves into all manner of things… Roadtown Wholesale have been trying to get my attention as well about fights in the store, children going in the store and stealing stuff, and so on.”
According to Hon Walwyn, efforts are now being made to repair usable sections of the original ESHS so that regular school hours can be reimplemented at the earliest possible time, eliminating the shift system.
Tent schools uncomfortable
On the other side of things, on the Primary School level, parents were up in arms over the unfriendly environment their children are dealing with for academic instructions.
Tents were the most feasible for the Ministry of Education to allow students who remained in the Territory following Hurricane Irma on September 6, 2017 back into the classroom after most of the Primary schools across the territory were damaged.
But children are not getting the level of learning as they have complained to their parents about being very uncomfortable. Parents also said the enclosed tents get extremely hot when it’s sunny and flood whenever it rains.
“To be quite honest with you, I can’t do much better at this time, to be very honest with you. It’s a tent, they are decent tents, but they are not serving the purpose entirely because of the weather. What we try to do right now is whatever the principals request of us, we ensure that the Education Officers provide it as swiftly as possible,” Hon Walwyn told parents, who put the issues to him.
“The best thing that we can do is what we have started to do already, that is to get the Leonora Delville School up and running. We have signed some contracts already to start that work and that is really the short term fix that we need,” he said.
Additionally, the minister promised to take the suggestion of one parent who said lifting the flooring of the tent schools may alleviate the issues of flooding.
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21 Responses to “ESHS students out of order; Tent schools not serving purpose entirely- Hon Walwyn”
Bottom line Myron has failed our students, teachers and parents and the education system. Premier reshuffle your cabinet or loose the next election.
The minister don't have all the answers. The public wants to help and if you listen to good ideas I think its the way forward. We can move from good to great.
the minister and his education officers is a$$**. they ain get no clue wha they doin. they are using the hurricanes as an excuse rather grounds to push for a much better education system. at leonora delville, the children were promised to be moved at the beginning of school in jan....but no construction ain start up to yet. they lying about about raising them tents... ithey done say raising the tents would only cause more problem. yet the children are sitting in water when it rains.
In these tough economic times there is need for the government to come to the people who elected them and ask for their support to rebuild the country and not offering contracts to their friends and families. This is the only way for the people to feel that they are contributing to the solutions.
Parents of students who are attending schools should be aproached to assist with the reconstruction of schoos free of cost. They should use their skills while others should provide food to feed the workers. This is the only way that we can say with confidence that WE are rebuilding the schools in the BVI.
I think you are not thinking before you express yourself. You are opening a can of worms. When children born in the BVI are sent out of the territory where do you expect them to go. Here is where they were born. Would you welcome them when they are old enough to vote.
You are reminding me of our slave masters who allow the slaves to reproduce to have enough labour on the plantations.