Last Thursday, a letter was given to all students indicating that the school would be closed until further notice.
On Monday, November 10th 2019, the issue was brought to the attention of the Teachers Union as teachers refused to work in the affected classrooms.
When ANN visited the school on Monday November 10th, the head teacher and a representative from Ministry of Education were conducting an assembly with the students. During the assembly, the students were told that the classrooms would be cleaned so they can return to the classrooms as soon as possible .
A Representative from BRAGSA who was at the school told ANN ” We are here to put measures in place to prevent rat from entering the classrooms”.
The BRAGSA worker pointed out areas where they were told that the rats may have entered. “I am puzzled”, the officer told ANN. “This not our job to deal with rats, it’s the Public Health Department job to do that. If they do their job and stop the blame game, we won’t have all these problems”, the BRAGSA worker said.
ANN was taken to the room that is alleged to be the source of the rat infestation. Upon entering the room, we had to exit immediately due the stench coming from the room . One parent who was present told ANN that they are in support of the teachers. ” The teachers are good teachers, they need to shut down the school for a whole week and clean up so our kids can return to a clean environment”, the parent said.
Teachers sitting outside classroom
One teacher was seen teaching a class during the time of the protest, the class subsequently ended after the representative from the ministry indicated that the students and the teacher should be sent home . When asked why there is no support for the other colleagues , the teacher said ” I not in any stupidness with them ,I have people’s children to teach. My class don’t have any rats , some of them glad for this because some ah them lazy. They wish if this could go on for a week. You think them easy you see them dey”, the teacher said.
The president of the Teachers Union, Ms. Wendy Bynoe and General Secretary, Nickeisha Williams were present to offer support to the teachers.
The school is expected to re-open tomorrow according to a release from the Ministry of Education, Principal Donette Ferdinand told ANN.
