15 years, billions of dollars later,
For the past 15 years, the People’s Partnership (PP) and the People’s National Movement (PNM) governments have spent billions of taxpayers’ dollars on fixing and building new schools.
However, some schools have been left in a state of disrepair while upgrades to others have been incomplete, culminating last week with Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly stating the challenge schools in T&T face with repairs may stem from a lack of sufficient funding despite a $5 billion budget allocated to her ministry.
The minister was responding to concerns about incomplete repairs and lack of readiness of a few schools at the start of the new academic year last Monday.
Among the schools that were not in a state of readiness to be opened on September 2 were St George’s College, Mt Hope Secondary, and Mayaro Secondary.
The minister stated that the cost of repairs submitted by school principals throughout the country totalled almost $2 billion while the ministry’s budget was $5 billion. After paying teachers’ salaries and staff, the ministry is left with $150 million to spend on school repairs, which Gadsby-Dolly said was insufficient.
The ministry would have needed $190 million for its critical repair programme for the July/August vacation but only had a $20 million budget to work with. On the ministry’s website, under the sub-heading Educational Facilities Planning and Procurement Division, it listed key projects for schools. It identified the construction of a pre-engineered building at Southern Central Anglican Primary. Five primary schools—Malabar, Chatham, and San Juan Boys’ and Girls’—and two ECCE centres in Wallerfield and Egypt Oasis were listed for “construction”.
An analysis by the Guardian Media Investigative Desk showed that over these 15 years, from 2010 to 2015, less than 50 per cent of the schools repaired were along the East-West corridor. More than 50 per cent of the schools repaired were based in central and south Trinidad. However, from 2016 to 2024, more schools in Central and South required much-needed repairs. T&T has 208 ECCE centres and 453 primary and 125 secondary schools, many of which are over 50 years old. Thirteen of these schools are between 120 and 130 years old.
Under Gopeesingh’s watch
When then-education minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh assumed office in 2010, he had a budgetary allocation of $85 million as he expressed concerns about renovation works at Barrackpore East and West Secondary, El Dorado West Secondary, La Puerta Government Primary, Belmont Junior Secondary, Tacarigua Presbyterian, Ramai Trace Hindu, Pleasantville Secondary, St Augustine Secondary and Cowen Hamilton Secondary.
That same year, San Fernando Boys’ RC, Harmony Hall Presbyterian and Cap-de-Ville Government Primary remained closed after the Easter vacation due to renovations.
In 2011, the doors of Tunapuna Anglican and Belmont Boys’ RC remained closed when school reopened after the Easter vacation due to rehabilitation work. Classes at Malick Secondary also came to a grinding halt in 2012 as the T&T Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) voiced displeasure of the school’s poor conditions, while parents of pupils attending Woodbrook Presbyterian Primary demanded that their children be relocated due to health and safety issues.
The following year, then TTUTA vice president Antonia De Freitas stated that 150 primary and secondary schools required repairs before school reopened in September.
She listed El Dorado East Secondary, Todd’s Road Primary, Tamana RC, Diego Martin Girls RC and Couva West Secondary as priority cases.
Gopeesingh responded to TTUTA, stating that between 2010 and October 2012, approximately 650 school projects were undertaken, costing $350 million. These projects ranged from roofs being repaired or replaced to infrastructural, plumbing, and electrical upgrades, while the sewer system in many of the schools had to be corrected.
Despite the huge repair bill, parents of students attending Moruga Roman Catholic Primary School pleaded for their 87-year-old school to be condemned and rebuilt. In August 2013, Gopeesingh tipped his hat to the now-defunct Education Facilities Company Ltd (EFCL) for completing 190 projects during the summer vacation. By 2014, Gopeesingh boasted that 328 schools saw improved conditions during the July/August vacation, describing it as “historic”.
Among the schools that received a spruce-up were Tranquillity Government Primary, St Theresa’s Girls’ RC, Arima Hindu, Cumuto Presbyterian, Morvant/Laventille Secondary and Couva West Secondary.
Two South-based schools—Princes Town Presbyterian and Princes Town Secondary—took longer than expected to open that year due to infrastructural problems and electrical issues. In early 2015, parents of pupils attending Brothers Road Presbyterian School protested for a new school.
Before Gopeesingh exited the ministry in 2015, he disclosed that $750 million was spent on school repairs.
During Garcia’s tenure
When Anthony Garcia was appointed Education Minister in August 2015, the parents of pupils of Siparia Union Presbyterian Primary School protested, condemning the ministry for halting work on their new school building.
In 2017, Block B at Gasparillo Secondary School was closed indefinitely for repairs, leaving 18 classrooms out of use. That same year, frustrated parents of San Fernando West Secondary bearing placards demanded that the school sewer be fixed.
TTUTA also called for better conditions for teachers and pupils of Tranquillity Government Primary. The next year, Garcia announced that 160 primary and secondary schools had been earmarked for repairs. However, he said, based on an assessment by the ministry, only 130 schools would be repaired during the July/August vacation, estimated to cost $48 million.
The parents of pupils attending Princes Town Presbyterian Primary School took no comfort in Garcia’s news and called for a new school.
In 2019, Garcia blew his trumpet when he announced that issues affecting Couva West Secondary, Aranguez North Secondary, Warrenville Government Primary, Fishing Pond Presbyterian and Woodbrook Secondary would be addressed before the new school term in September.
These schools were among 194 projects that had been undertaken. At the start of the new school term in January 2020, Garcia announced that the ministry had spent $85,117,000 repairing and outfitting schools in the country.
However, Point Fortin East Secondary was not on the ministry’s listing for repairs, as they called on the minister to provide an infrastructural upgrade following a fire at the administrative block caused by faulty electrical work. Two months later, schools had to be closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gadsby-Dolly
in the hot seat
Garcia was replaced by Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly following the August 2020 general election. In April 2022, under Gadsby-Dolly’s watch, schools reopened their doors, and there was an avalanche of protests by parents of students for improved conditions, infrastructural developments, new schools, or the building of new schools to be fast-tracked for their children’s education and future. Many of the schools that remained closed had fallen into disrepair.
The Government had to grapple with a contracting economy and falling revenue. The protests, which started in 2022, rolled into 2023 and continued in 2024. Some schools where protests occurred were the Ramai Hindu School, Holy Cross Anglican Primary, Gasparillo Secondary, and Claxton Bay Junior Anglican.
St Dominic’s RC, Santa Flora Government Primary, Mafeking Government Primary, Marabella Boys’ and Girls’ Anglican, Palmiste Primary, Buenos Aires Government Primary, Holy Cross Anglican Primary, Rousillac Hindu School. In 2022, the ministry announced that it had planned to spend $165 million of its $7.453 billion allocation for emergencies and other repairs.
Last November, Gadsby-Dolly said repair and rehabilitation work at 42 schools was expected to cost $411 million. She also revealed that between 2021 and 2023 the Government spent over $1 billion on infrastructural repairs.
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