The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

PARENTS and guardians of the thousands of children left displaced after Hurricane Dorian unleashed its fury on Abaco and Grand Bahama more than two weeks ago say they are frustrated with the process set up to enroll the students in new schools.

The Ministry of Education set up a public school registration process to place the children in new schools throughout New Providence as soon as possible.

But, for many parents and guardians, the task has been anything but an easy one.

When The Tribune visited the registration site at the Thomas A Robinson Stadium yesterday, many complained that storm victims staying in emergency shelters were given priority treatment. Others said the exercise was disorganised.

Crystal Tinker, a mother of a six-year-old, said: "I was given an appointment to come down here for eleven o'clock and when I get down here, I was given a number and I was told that the persons that were here from six o'clock get first priority. These are people I assume from the shelters . . .they're getting first priority and I don't have a problem with them, but it's like Bahamians first."

Ms Tinker also mentioned that the process should be more efficient.

"I have a problem with the fact that they don't have much computers in here, so everything is being done manually here so we are like are we back in the 80s?" she asked. "When I came from Abaco, I didn't have my son's immunisation card, so he had to take shots all over again…. That should've been logged in the system. He had to go through horrific experience all over again when that database from Abaco should've been linked to Nassau because this is the capital."

For the past two days, Felica Strachan has been going to the stadium to register her niece, who will be entering her last year of high school. Ms Strachan told The Tribune that the process to register her niece did not go as smoothly as she had hoped.

"There are not enough chairs. The ladies are saying move from the door. Everyone is trying to get sorted out. It's very frustrating and then we have other things to do. They just don't have it together. You need proper organisation. There is none here," she said.

One mother, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "It's not organised -. they're (shelter residents) sleeping over there (at the Kendal Isaacs Gym) from what I understand and so by the time we get here, they done full up the place and so we can't get processed in a timely fashion and we have to come back and come back."

Meanwhile, another storm victim from Abaco expressed similar sentiments to The Tribune. She said: "I understand you have thousands of children, but you have your civil servants who need to get to work. You have teachers, you have nurses and police officers. They should've dealt with us first."