Minister of Education weighs in on shut down of Sacred Heart School

A sewerage problem at the Sacred Heart Primary School in Dangriga has caused the school to shut down and students have been away from classes for eight days. The school’s catholic management is directly responsible for the infrastructure and today when we asked Minister of Education Patrick Faber to comment on the matter, he responded that Government is responsible for salaries but infrastructure falls on the shoulders of the management. He says that while his Ministry can support as best as they can, he called out the Roman Catholic Management to remedy the issue and get the students back in class.

Patrick Faber, Minister of Education

Patrick Faber

“The infrastructure is also something the ministry helps out with but the primary responsibility of the infrastructure and to make sure that those conditions in the environment for the learning for the children are with the management of those schools. And so it is that the management in that case it is the Roman Catholic School. The government helps you know. I don’t want anybody to think that the government does not see that as something that it ought to be doing. And we have helped through the Social Investment Fund and through other friendly entities that help us in education. We often get into the business of providing infrastructural support and to help to fix the environment in which children learn. But that is their primary concern and a school of that size and that magnitude where the children are still being charged fees, it ought to be handled. Our district manager Dr. Nunez is the person who is dealing with it primarily and as I said, I have not been able to hear a report from her as yet because I was out but I am hoping that the matter will be resolved very shortly and I call on the management to do their part. Because that is something, unless I am missing some of the details; something that the management should be handling.”