Dear Editor,
During our nightmarish week last week, with our Nursing Instructor resigning, police coming to the school, having to do exams under stressful conditions and same instructor being pinned with false complaints, only to then have the parent come forward and call the Social Worker, the minister and the board members liars because she never filed a complaint against our instructor.
Our instructor was told she couldn’t correct our exams, so we went to the inspectorate to find out why, because she was the only one teaching us the material. Suddenly the school issued a statement that our teacher can correct the exams, but we were still confused about the other exams we still had to do, so we went to the inspectorate a second time.
It was immediately observed by the inspectorate staff members that it made no sense going there, because of the stupid questions they asked, like: “Did your teacher influence you to come here like board member Annuska Friday-Illis said in the newspaper? Of course not! We are all adults with minds of our own, and yes, we love our teacher and we support her 110%, but we cannot be controlled to do anything we don’t want to do.
Annuska Illis-Friday has never once spoken to our class and rarely ever greets us with a ‘good morning’, just like board member Aventurin. No manners. So how can Annuska know about our emotions or if they are being played on? She probably was ordered to say that, and they are the ones that have no mind of their own, and do what Aventurin tells them to do. Only one board member greets us, the tall redskin one.
The inspectorate (Saskia) was wrong for asking such a question and their attitude towards us was very standoffish, as if they were already convinced by the Board or the Minister. Saskia seemed more upset than us, that we came there. Who else were we supposed to go to? We even asked our teacher to meet us there to get answers.
There was a news article a few weeks ago, stating that after our protest last month, the inspectorate met with students at NIPA and said everything was handled and over. News Flash: That was a boldfaced lie and no one from inspectorate met with none of the students that protested because it was our class; we have 24 students, and not one student had any meeting with them. That was a secret cover- up operation, where Mr. Garfield set up his two nieces and their friend to meet them, and I guess state everything was okay.
All of this is wrong; the inspectorate is obviously corrupt and has orders to hide and cover up for the Minister and the school. Our teacher spoke to the inspectorate and shared the issues with them last month, and from then she was being targeted by the board, Our teacher is brave and fearless.
It is a sad day in any country when students are not free to speak up without being victimized, and the ones that are put in place to protect us are in the pockets of the people above them. Now, we have students that may not graduate because she stood up. Suddenly a new teacher, who is the Minister’s daughter, is trying to fail her thesis.
This is wrong on so many levels and it’s sad. She worked 3 long years off and ironically in the week before exams, this teacher suddenly finds that her project is not good? Go figure! We are calling on the Prime Minister to act on these issues at NIPA. Please help us! Some of us are attending NIPA for a second and even third time; each time we had to stop or leave because of the past issues when they had no teachers and other problems. When we were going to quit last year because we heard they had no teacher, Miss Farrah showed up and saved us.
When we were frustrated because we couldn’t afford the books, Miss Farrah got 28 books donated to us from a company “Boolchands.”
When we had no material for skills lab and her request was taking too long to be processed, she took her own money and bought the materials. It is only as of lately with the board drama, the board seems to be spending money for the things we needed long ago.
Please Prime Minister, please intervene; we don’t have any more years to waste.
Student
Name withheld at author's request.
