Baksh in flushy situation

Minister of Education Shaik Baksh has been invited to a meeting next Friday with parents and residents of the Santa Rosa community to discuss the installation of flush toilets at the primary school following the death of nine-year-old Tenaha De Souza who fell into the hole of a pit latrine.

The decision to invite the minister to the meeting was taken at an emergency meeting convened on Wednesday afternoon where parents, teachers and regional officials, including the Regional Education Officer (REO) were in attendance.

Chairperson of the Parent-Teachers Association (PTA), Mark Atkinson, said parents indicated that they had received no direct information from the minister or his ministry as everything they have learnt was from the newspapers.

“We decided that we want to hear from the minister direct and so we invite him to the meeting to come and talk to us,” Atkinson said. He said that it was important for the minister to meet the parents and the community as a whole following the tragedy of De Souza’s demise.

He said he felt the matter was important enough for the minister to travel to the area and parents were looking forward to his visit.

However, should the minister fail to attend the meeting the parents have decided, his ministry “can have no say” in the building of sanitary blocks at the school as they said that it would be left up to the parents.

“We would accept donations and we continue to ask for donations and we will build the sanitary block because we are concerned for out children,” he told Stabroek News.