Yesterday at his meeting with the media - Education Minister Patrick Faber discussed all kinds of issues which are timely as the new school year begins.
But at the Adventist School in Progresso Village - all that is by the way. Some parents at that school are fed up with the principal and refused to send their children to classes when the new school year started. Carla Alvarez the district Education Manager yesterday told the media that there are issues on both sides of this dispute:...
Carla Alvarez, District Education Manager - OW
"Yes we do recognize that there are some discrepancy there and yes there is mismanagement to a certain extent and the Adventist Mission has made the commitment to do certain kinds of intervention. For example they will have the local manager there every two weeks. The general manager has promised to be there every month and working along with the Ministry of Education I am sure that we can make drastic improvement."
"Yes there was some serious problems at the schools especially with things like record keeping and so on. Truancy was a major problem, it continues to be a problem to a certain extent, like for example in the month of February and March we had children who were taken out of the classroom by the parents, so that they can go and reap beans. What we have done as the ministry, we go out there along with the Ministry of Labor and we remind the elders of the Mennonite community and so on that they cannot use these children because it is child labor and so on. So to a certain extent we have heard that, but I must say that to a certain extent the parents are not helping us because if they are taking their children out of school sometimes a month at time and they send notes to the school saying that their children are sick when in fact the children are out there in the fields reaping beans because these children are making $200 and $300 per week."
Alvarez reminded the parents that missing school is an offence.
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