What we are seeing at Walter Parker Primary School in Freeport is unacceptable and heartbreaking. Videos from the campus show missing concrete from the ceiling, leaking roofs, and pools of water collecting on classroom floors and in public areas.
Even the new school in McLean’s Town, East Grand Bahama, is now showing severe cracks, literal cracks in the walls of a building that was supposed to represent hope and renewal. These dangerous structural faults must be addressed immediately before they become a tragedy. In addition, since the Government’s grand announcement of a “new all-age school” for High Rock over a year ago, the people have heard nothing. The fanfare has faded, the promises have vanished, and the Government has gone completely missing. Not a word has been said to the residents of East Grand Bahama about the progress, plans, or even the start of construction for the promised school. The people of East Grand Bahama deserve answers, and they deserve them now.
The Free National Movement cannot stay silent while our children and teachers are forced to learn and work in unsafe and deteriorating conditions. The Davis administration has failed to ensure even the most basic standards of safety and maintenance. At the start of this school year, many students were left without adequate classrooms. Schools across the country continue to struggle with teacher shortages. And despite promises, the government still has not provided enough security guards to protect campuses.
This government must ensure stability in our schools. It has allowed disputes to fester, ignored health and safety concerns, and admitted it cannot fill critical teacher vacancies. The result is chaos and decline, students sitting under leaking roofs, teachers stretched beyond capacity, and parents forced to send their children into unsafe environments.
Parents and students deserve safe, well-run schools, not classrooms filled with mould, sewer scents, and fear. The PLP’s failure to act is robbing our children of the quality education they deserve.
An FNM government will restore order and standards in education. We will support teachers and administrators to do their important work, fix the basics so that schools are safe and properly staffed, and deliver higher standards so that every Bahamian child has the chance to succeed. Our children deserve leadership that plans ahead, not one that reacts after disaster strikes.
We call on the Davis administration to address the conditions at Walter Parker Primary and Mcleans Town Primary immediately and to finally take responsibility for the collapse of confidence in our public education system. The future of our children depends on it.