MARIGOT--Parents and teachers of children in the French-side primary schools will continue demonstrating today over the school administration board's (Rectorat's) decision to close four classrooms in St. Martin and one in St. Barths for the start of the new 2011-2012 school year as part of Nicolas Sarkozy's national education reforms.
News of the proposed closures came to light in St. Martin just before Carnival. Affected schools include those in Sandy Ground, French Quarter, French Cul-de-Sac and Marigot.
Parents and union leaders are angry because not only does the decision disrupt their children's education, but they also will have to move their children into other schools in the shuffle.
A general meeting was organised by the Parents Association in the Chamber of Commerce last week Friday to address the situation. Vice-President in charge of education Louis Jeffry lent his support to the association.
"It's all about the numbers and mathematical calculations," explained association president Vernicia Brooks. "There's an average of children allowed per class which can go up to 26, but if there's a class of 10 children they (Rectorat) consider that can be closed. Parents will have to put their children in other schools.
"This means we are going to continue to have over-populated classrooms. It's bad enough as it is when you have to teach a class of 25 where only 20 per cent speak French perfectly and the rest of the class speaks Creole, English, and Spanish."
Brooks is hoping parents will receive the attention of the General Secretary of the Rectorat when he arrives on Wednesday for meetings in the Collectivit�, though she was not completely sure of the exact purpose of his visit.
The Rectorat is notoriously silent when it comes to giving reasons for its actions, as evidenced over the furore that surrounded the transfer to Guadeloupe of Education Head Robert Romney last year.
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