Shame on Walwyn; $1M wasted on wall; Schools begging for toilet paper!
For the most part, because of blatant politics and his dislike for the press that reports the truth, the controversial Minister for Education and Culture Hon Myron V. Walwyn (AL) has taken to the House of Assembly to tell lies about the media and fool the people that all is well in education and the schools.
In fact, almost every week our newsroom is overwhelmed with information from teachers, parents and students about the Elmore Stoutt High School (ESHS) on the situation with fights, knives, lack of funding and even marijuana on campus, the lack of resources at the Bregado Flax Educational Centre (BFEC) and how teachers as recently as last week had to take their personal resources to help the situation.
Many of the information received by our newsroom are not published, because our media house strives to be fair, balanced and objective and gives the Ministry of Education time to address challenges, which for the most part can be addressed, if there were financial resources.
FB post begging for toilet paper! Shameful
Well yesterday February 10, 2017 a staff from the Enis Adams Primary School sent out a Facebook message begging parents for paper towel and toilet paper to be brought to the school on Monday.
This is not the first time both this school and other state-owned schools have been in this position as the Government is allegedly broke after the National Democratic Party raided the Treasury to win the 2015 snap elections, according to the Opposition, the media and civil society.
Once the information of the FB massage from the Enis Adams Primary School started circulating on social network, the Minister, whose credibility is at its lowest point ever, told some in the local media that his Ministry has the supplies, and that parents must ignore the message.
Other schools face same situation weekly
However, a teacher at the school, speaking to our newsroom on condition of anonymity, claimed that they have been begging the Ministry of Education for supplies from November of last year and questioned the Minister's truthfulness on the matter in his recent public statement.
Many other schools around the Virgin Islands, including the BFEC, have called our newsroom to say that the situation at the Enis Adams Primary School is something they face weekly, with little or no support from the Ministry or Minister Walwyn.
Mr Walwyn, who is in his second term as Minister for Education (2011-current), has been blasted for taking a million dollars of tax payers money and building a small wall around the ESHS before the 2015 snap elections, while schools and other agencies under his Ministry did not have adequate funds to operate.
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45 Responses to “Shame on Walwyn; $1M wasted on wall; Schools begging for toilet paper!”
As long as me and my family is alive next election he will never get a vote from me or my children
MVW should look inwards before he venture forth fighting for Premier. He will never again get one vote from me should God spare my life to see another election!!! He already lead the NDP and the MEC down the wrong path.
Who is he trying to fool telling parents to not study the School FB page?
Provide the schools with the necessary supplies and stop having the teachers beg for stuff which they do all the time
And then what put marlan as j**k*$$ of all trade. How about get rid a all of them. All you take Government business for joke. Days of reshuffling done done done. This Government already prove incompetent. Say no more.
The territory's educational needs have out-grown the government's pocket, but for some reason, a well- organized collaboration of outreach to the wider community is not being encouraged. One can't help but to question what really is the vision for the future of education in this territory and how will we practically achieve it.
Is this a malicious act by someone or a genuine need for school supplies consumables? Either way, there is a problem.
Here is my take on public school operation. Government should appropriate adequate resources for school facilities, staffing, equipment, tools, consumables, non consumables, transportation……etc for the effective education of our children.
Furthermore, each school should be allocated an operations and maintenance budget. And the principal should be held responsible and accountable for managing and executing allocated budget.
Principal should be evaluated on budget management. MEC should be responsible for any capital projects budget needs.
The principal should also be held accountable for the inventory, use, care, and security of all assigned assets. Standards, goals and expectations set, principals should be empowered to operate their schools.
Moreover, there should be a centralized maintenance and repair unit for all schools. The outlying islands can be satellite units of the. centralize unit.
What were voters thinking? They weren't.
My suggestion to parents is to send their children to school tomorrow with some sort of tissue in their bags because the school may not get any supplies until after 10:00 when the government workers show up to work.
He lied