Last Updated on Friday, 19 January 2024, 22:07 by Denis Chabrol
A Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the Mahdia Secondary School fire that killed 20 children last year has found that the “inferno” was linked to a number of socio-economic conditions in the mining community to which mainly girls are vulnerable.
COI Chairman, Retired Major General Joseph Singh said the events and circumstances and the causes of the “appalling act of arson” on the Mahdia Secondary’s School’s female dormitory were an “unfortunate outcome” of several factors such as the influence of the mining culture on the social relationships within communities, the vulnerability of youths-mainly female teenage students-, and the influence of adults in the mining sector “who groom young females, in some cases, with the tacit support of family members who benefit financially from such arrangements. In the hours after the fire, sources had said then that a schoolgirl had threatened to set the building afire after her cellphone was seized because she was communicating with an adult male.
In his remarks after receiving a copy of the report from Mr Singh, the President said government would be taking steps to improve discipline and change the culture in the way Guyanese do things. “The Ministry of Education today is faced with tremendous difficulties in the behavioural pattern and changes in many schools and we now have to work and see how we can incorporate a higher degree of discipline through a systemic intervention,” he said. The President said greater emphasis should be placed on “moulding” the minds of youths by the religious community and families rather than counselling that is done after an occurrence.
With the boys of the Mahdia Secondary School not attending classes because of the fire, Dr Ali said technology would be used to ensure that “they are in learning” by providing learning aids and allowances to teachers to teach them until a long-term system is put in place.
The media were not invited to cover the handing over the COI report to President Ali at State House, and the document was not released to the media up to 9 PM Friday. Instead the media were told the follow the President’s a number of other social media pages for a statement but had given no indication that it was the handing over of the COI report. The Commissioners of Inquiry, Attorney General Anil Nandlall, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand and other senior government officials attended the event.
President Ali, in his remarks, said government was working on a “robust implementation plan” to improve physical infrastructure and provide counselling in line with recommendations by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). He said in the coming days the Ministries of Education and Health would be inviting tenders to improve washroom facilities, safety, furniture , fire responsiveness and hazards. “All of this, of course, will help us to build stronger systems,” he said.
Major General Singh said based on 29 witnesses, sufficiently credible evidence and reports, the COI concluded that the fire on May 23, 2023 was “intentionally set” by an individual. A 15-year old girl has been charged with 20 counts of murder and has been remanded to the Juvenile Holding Centre.
Though the Inquiry Commissioners reported that that they found that there was a delay in contacting and/or seeking assistance of the fire service as well as other problems that adversely impacted the response, they credited firefighters with rescuing 14 children who had been trapped in the Mahdia Secondary School dormitory. The COI Chairman indicated that the destruction of the dormitory, deaths and injuries could not have been avoided because the fire service was summoned late.
“We found that when the Fire Service arrived at the fire to provide a response, the female dormitory was already consumed by fire and, even in the absence of the issues I referred to earlier, very little more could have been done to prevent a different outcome. This was due to the late stage at which the Mahdia Fire Service was contacted and dispatched to the fire,” the COI Chairman said in remarks before presenting the report to President Irfaan Ali.
The COI Report, at the same time, points to a number of weaknesses such as the negligence of particular officials in fire readiness and in the education sector on psycho-social services to deal condignly with deviant behaviour. Other problems encountered related to fire fighting were crowd control and access to the dormitory compound encountered by firefighters, inadequacies of the Mahdia Fire Service in rescue and fire fighting equipment and the lack of the availability water supply to fight the fire. “These factors assisted with the speed of the conflagration that engulfed the dormitory in which the children were trapped,” he said.
Mr Singh noted that although there were five un-grilled doors to provide entry and exit, it did not change the outcome of the fire. “Such was the magnitude and speed of the blaze and this was accompanied by understandable human failure to access the keys in those chaotic and fiery circumstances,” he said.
President Ali said aspects of safety at the Mahdia dorm had been brought to the attention of the last administration but “nothing was done.”
Mr Singh said recommendations were made to tackle the “root causes” of that tragedy, but did not disclose any of them. Instead, he explicitly said the COI recommended that a monument be erected at the site of the tragedy. “It will also be a reminder to us that there is nothing more important than caring for, nurturing and mentoring our children.” Dr Ali committed his administration to implement the recommendations including the construction of the monument that would represent the various Indigenous Indian groups.
No mention was made by the Mahdia COI Chairman or the President about additional compensation for surviving families of those who died, and the injured. Government last year July had signed several agreements that GY$5 million each “constitute a settlement of all claims and causes of actions on account of all injuries resulting in death and not resulting in death.”
The COI held public hearings from September 15 to November 10, 2023, and visited Mahdia, Karisparu, Chenapau, Micobie and Campbelltown.
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