00:00Over 8 years ago, the St Dominic's RSC Primary School in Pinal was closed due to infrastructural
00:13issues and its students relocated.
00:16Most of the children are kept at the community centre nearby, but its 57 infant students
00:22are taught out of the St Dominic's RSC Church across the road, a church whose gates remain
00:27open to the public and even operates a school for migrant children to the back.
00:33One of the issues is security, we do not have security on this compound.
00:37So the infants are at risk most of the time, if not all the times, because there is only
00:43four teachers to cater to 57 students.
00:46There was an incident where a mental man came onto the compound, he went down to the back,
00:51so he had full access to the entire compound, he went down to the back, he removed his pants
00:56and I'm in.
00:58The parents say other obvious issues arise out of keeping the children in a church and
01:03not a designated school building.
01:06It cannot accommodate 57 students of the school plus the migrant school.
01:12So it's our 57 plus however much they have there using the same two washrooms.
01:19Inside of this building there used to be AC units installed, but we can't use the AC anymore.
01:26There's a matter of a bill that needs to be paid, they're asking the school to pay it,
01:32the school doesn't have the funds, they're asking the parents to pay it.
01:35The toilets, there's two doorways at the inside of the toilet, those doorways are connected
01:41to the migrant school.
01:43So the migrant children use the same doorway through the toilets that these infants are
01:47using to go to the kitchen, to the kitchen area.
01:51That is also unsafe.
01:53The parents say they have made requests to have a security officer stationed at the church,
01:58but to no avail.
01:59They say that the security, the school has allotted one security officer and that security
02:04officer is currently at the community centre.
02:07While we know we can't get a school in the morning, we need some sort of accommodation.
02:14Should I be containing us down the hill to accommodate the infant students, we just need
02:19that security.
02:21Until something is done by the Ministry of Education to reassure parents of the safety
02:26of their young children, they plan to keep them away.
02:30Children have a right, a right to education, a right to safety, and these are things that
02:35are being compromised on a daily by sending our children here.
02:39So this morning we're making a stand.
02:41We are keeping them home until further notice and until our voices are heard.
02:45We want a new school.
02:47We want a new school.
02:49We want a new school.
02:51We want a new school.
02:53Cindy Raguba Chika Singh, TV6 News.
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