Cloud hangs over crumbling Alligator Pond Primary as new school year approaches

WESTERN BUREAU:

There are concerns that the Alligator Pond Primary and Infant School in Manchester may not be ready to welcome students physically at the start of the new school year as areas of critical repairs remain outstanding.

Principal Gregory Bent told The Gleaner that the school’s infrastructural woes include damaged roofs and walls, the lack of perimeter fencing and restroom facilities, and a vandalised water pipe.

“We have not been certified by the Early Childhood Commission (ECC) since I have been there in 2018, because of the state of the school building. The walls are open [and] the ceiling is falling in. We have a slab roof that is also falling in, and there are cracks in every single classroom, in the corners, in the middle, and from the ceiling to the floor,” he said.

“We have predominantly female staff, and both the male and female staff use the students’ bathrooms,” he continued. “The community has been out of water for the past five to six months, and every other day, I have to purchase water from the students’ contribution.”

But even when the school buys water, there are still challenges, the principal said.

“When we return to school, the little water that is there at school, the community comes and they drain it because none is in the community, and there is no perimeter fencing to keep them out,” he explain.

Built during the 1930s, the school is owned by the United Church in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. Its physical condition has worsened following last October’s passage of Hurricane Melissa, which damaged the canteen, the infant department, and sections of the main building’s roof.

Francine Wilson, a resident of Alligator Pond, whose 10-year-old daughter will be entering grade five at the primary school, which has seen a reduction in student population from 135 to 86, said that the school’s condition is causing parents in the community to send their children elsewhere.

“My daughter has been going there for almost five years, and there has been no form of development in regard to the school compound. The building is basically deteriorating with the kids there,” she told The Gleaner. “The lunchroom is decked, yet there can be an accident at any time because the ceiling is basically falling in.”

During the Jamaica Teachers’ Association’s recent three-day conference, Education Minister Dr Dana Morris Dixon said that Alligator Pond Primary is expected to undergo significant rehabilitation work, though she did not say when that work would begin.

“There is a lot of work projected to happen for Alligator Pond Primary, as they are going to be getting a new roof, canteen facilities, and other areas. There is going to be construction of six classrooms, plus two classrooms for the infant department, and also administrative space, new sanitary facilities, ancillary space, a new computer room, and an art and science space,” said Morris Dixon.

But Bent admitted that he is doubtful such a promise will be fulfilled, as he has been raising the issue of Alligator Pond Primary’s infrastructural needs with successive education ministers since 2018, but nothing has changed.

“I have gotten this promise already from previous ministers of education. Fayal Williams, when she was there in that role, had promised it just as faithfully, and Ruel Reid did the same, and Karl Samuda said he knew of it when I spoke to him about it. Everybody has promised, and none of them has come through,” he said.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com