Editor: For forty years the St. Martin’s Secondary School (SMSS) has made education possible for many Vincentian children who would otherwise have not experience a secondary education.

However, since the Christian Brothers left, the school is an orphan feeding off the pedagogical refuse of its should-be stakeholders. The Diocese has often complained that they have no money to spend on the school. In a recent document evaluating the status of catholic education in SVG the school was the only entity to receive much scathing attention. It was even mooted that the school should be closed. {{more}}

Principal and staff remain oblivious of the Diocese plans for the future of the school. This is alarming considering the principal is to leave at year’s end. We are now being informed that because the government is paying us the teachers they are no longer paying any fees of the students who passed the Common Entrance. A cabal exists somewhere!

Fees remain unpaid since January. I graduated from the Teachers College since 2003 and I am yet to see the deserved salary. An appointment letter was just received and no mention of retroactive payment? Is it true that the PM said that he has washed his hands off government-assisted schools following and the publication of a recent media letter from a teacher at SJCM?

I’d like to know exactly where schools like SMSS fit in all the talk by the government and Prime Minister about making education accessible to all sectors of the state. Nowhere do they mention the government-assisted schools in their plans. I am fed up of the masking of this slow death. The teachers and students need to be made aware as regards their bread and butter, and indeed their future!

Ashford Daniel