Unfinished road at Liverpool: Teachers, students prevented from entering school by protesting PTA

The Parent Teacher Association (PTA) of the McGowan Primary School at Liverpool Village, Corentyne, Berbice Friday locked teachers and students out of the school and its compound because of an unfinished road leading to the school.

The Regional Education Officer Narindra Persaud visited the location and said the works will be completed by November 1.

There were parents and villagers with placards protesting that if the road is not complete then there will be no school.

“They blocked the entrance and didn’t grant the teachers access; I was also locked out,” one teacher said.

It was revealed that the construction of the road commenced in July of this year.

Mr Persaud, upon learning of the situation, ventured to the location with an engineer and made an assessment of the works.

He disclosed that the road is being done through the Ministry of Public Works and that the contractor tasked with completing the project has not gone beyond the time frame stipulated in the contract to complete it.

He stated that the road is scheduled to be completed on November 1, 2023, as per the contractual agreement.

The contractor indicated that the next process would be to apply bitumen to the surface in the coming weeks. However, following a discussion with the REO and the PTA, that process will be sped up and the bitumen is expected to be laid over the weekend.

There were also complaints that work was not completed on the school building itself, but Persaud said he gave a few parents a tour of the building to highlight the upgrades that were done over the holiday period to prepare for the reopening of the school.

Parents have reportedly agreed to send their children to school come Monday morning.