BY RASBERT TURNER
STAR Writer
SPANISH TOWN, ST CATHERINE:
ANGRY PARENTS PADLOCKED the gate of the Guys Hill High School in St Catherine, yesterday, disrupting school for the day. The more than fifty placard-bearing parents who stormed the school's entrance from about 6 a.m. claim that the shortage of teachers at the school is hampering the progress of their children.
"We cannot have our children being called dunce because it's the school lacks adequate specialised teachers. We need it to be addressed now or else we are going to continue blocking the entrance until the Ministry of Education deals with our problem," a parent Maxine Burke said.
The irate parents said the school falls short of nine specialist teachers in areas such as art and craft, carpentry, special reading, music and computer studies. This they claim is "short-changing" the children who want to acquire skills in these practical areas. They also claim that when parents remove students from the institution and send them elsewhere they seem to learn better.
Garrick Donaldson, a senior teacher at the school said that the shortage of teachers is a real issue. "There is indeed the need for specialised teachers as the parents have claimed," he admitted, adding that the shortage is creating a stress on the rest of the school. He said that the demonstration follows numerous letters written through the parent-teacher association to the school. The teacher said he hoped that the matter could be quickly resolved as the day's activities would adversely affect the school year.
The resident said that they would block the school again if they did not get the nine teachers to teach their children.
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