TTUTA raises alarm over outstanding repairs for several schools ahead of the new academic year

With schools set to re­open next week, Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers’ As­so­ci­a­tion (TTUTA) pres­i­dent Crys­tal Ashe is de­mand­ing an­swers from the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion over the readi­ness of school fa­cil­i­ties, rais­ing con­cerns about what he de­scribed as a “late start” to main­te­nance works on some build­ings.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Ashe claimed that re­pairs to some school fa­cil­i­ties be­gan in Au­gust in­stead of Ju­ly, which he said was not ad­e­quate time for much-need­ed works to be com­plet­ed be­fore the be­gin­ning of the new term.

Ashe said that while he was un­able to con­firm specif­i­cal­ly which schools were in the most dire need of up­grades or which may not be ready for re-open­ing next week, is­sues such as the avail­abil­i­ty of ad­e­quate fur­ni­ture and the gen­er­al con­di­tion of school equip­ment re­mained a ma­jor con­cern at many build­ings.