MAY PEN, Clarendon — Board chairman of May Pen Infant School Stanley Ramsingh has blamed what he describes as “political sabotage” for creating conditions that led to parents padlocking the school’s gates Tuesday morning.

As a handful of children, teachers and janitorial workers gathered outside the inaccessible premises, some parents chanted, “The chairman must go!”

“We are here this morning because there is no principal at the school; the canteen is closed, there is no vice-principal,” said Kimone Hamilton.

She said even though they have paid for the canteen to provide meals to their children, they have been unable to eat there for about three weeks, and no other meal options are provided and promised updates have not been forthcoming.

Hamilton, who called for the return of the principal and vice-principal, said: “We are just protesting about everything…We need the chairman out because he is not making any sense; we want the chairman to be out of the system and a new chairperson,” she said.

Shawna-Gaye Salmon, who expressed similar sentiments, was particularly concerned about sanitary conditions at the school.

“There is no cleaning going on at the school; they don’t have any chemicals to clean the school and this is not good for the children’s health. So, I am here this morning in regards of the children’s health and the teachers’ welfare. We need a new chairman, we need a vice-principal, and we need back [principal] Miss Brown at this school because when she was here, everything was running very smoothly,” said the irate parent.

However, board Chairman Ramsingh sought to provide what he said was context that was missing from the discussion. He said since September last year he has written 32 letters to the education ministry in an effort to get a number of issues addressed but his pleas have “all fallen on deaf ears”. He painted a picture of a school administration that has its hands tied.

Ramsingh explained that the board had suspended the principal for what it ascertained were breaches committed, the vice-principal resigned in September 2022 and the education ministry has not accepted any of the board’s recommendations for replacements.

“We asked the ministry from the 25th of April to send somebody on secondment to act as the interim principal, but they haven’t [approved] it at all,” he told the Jamaica Observer by phone.

According to him, they have not been able to manage their finances for more than a year as efforts to have the guidance counsellor appointed as a signatory to the school accounts were thwarted at the regional level of the education ministry.

“So that simply means that we didn’t have anybody from the school to sign cheques. We have not written a cheque from the school for over 14 months now; that’s a plain fact because there is no one from the school staff to sign cheques,” Ramsingh said.

When asked about the closed canteen he again pointed the finger at the education ministry’s regional office.

“From last year September the funds that the Government grant to the school were not coming to the school. It was diverted to the regional office — regional service…Now the regional office said that they would pay the bills and they have not been paying [all] the bills. They do pay for the ancillary staff, but they are not paying for the suppliers and that’s the only thing they said in terms of the canteen. The wholesale that supplies goods to the canteen is owed money between three and four months now, totalling close to a quarter of a million dollars. The last order that we sent out there, the wholesaler refused to honour it because the owners said they wanted to get their money,” Ramsingh said.

“People who supply chemicals and cleaning agents for the school are owed over $100,000 for the accumulation of bills. The Internet and the telephone [bill] has not been paid for over four months now and it is disconnected. The school has no telephone, they have no Internet, except the one that the Ministry of Education provides, which works fine when it is working,” he said.

Ramsingh named the individual he believes is the stumbling block.

“The Ministry of Education, and in particular the regional office is sabotaging the school; and I say that without any fear of contradiction because we have evidence of that last year,” the board chairman maintained.

“Even the Tax Administration of Jamaica, the statutory deductions from their claims have not been paid over to them for the past four months because what happened is that the gentleman is, in short word, sabotaging the school,” said Ramsingh.

When contacted for a response, the education ministry’s regional director Barrington Richardson asked the Observer to call back as he was discussing the issue with his supervisor. Up to press time, efforts to speak with him after that were futile.

The school board chairman, meanwhile, is hoping Education Minister Fayval Williams will intervene.

“I would have wanted the region to intervene; but, in short, I am very frustrated. It is all politics… The school is riddled with politics now,” Ramsingh lamented.