The Education Ministry must get its act together and move to treat with the pigeon invasion at the Marabella Senior Comprehensive school or else teachers would continue to stay away from the classrooms, Peter Wilson, General Secretary of the Trinidad and Tobago Unified Teachers Association (TTUTA) warned today.
According to Wilson the majority of teachers stayed away from classes again today having walked off the job yesterday in protest of the hazardous conditions at the school. He said teachers began engaging in protest action since last week.
"My information is that the majority of teachers stayed away from classes today ... since Thursday last week teachers refused to work because of the situation, they returned to work yesterday to see if anything was done, but nothing much was done, so they walked off the job ... teachers and students always have to be cleaning pigeons droppings, it all over the desk and chairs.
There are pigeons in the eaves and ceiling and all the blocks of the school, the ceilings are sagging," Wilson said.
He said teachers were well within their rights to stay away from classrooms if they felt their health and safety are at risk. He said the school's staff administration "made some efforts" to get the ministry of education to deal with the problem but to no avail.
He said in addition to the pigeon problem there were also complaints of rats "scurrying" around classrooms.
"Our policy is clear. We would not allow teachers to continue to work under conditions which are unsafe. Teachers and students have to put up with the pigeons and their droppings which potentially carry disease,"
"Teachers are also complaining about respiratory problems. A number of them have had to seek medical attention," Wilson said.
However Sherry Mc Millan, communications manager of the Education Facilities Company Limited (EFCL), which is responsible for repairing and maintaining the nation's schools, refuted claims that the Ministry failed to treat with the problem even though it was reported.
She said the EFCL never received an official report from the school about the pigeon invasion.
"Principals have a responsibility to officially report these things. The school never reported the problem to the EFCL. They should not wait until the situation get messy and people start getting sick and then say that the Ministry is bad."
Mc Millan acknowledged that classes were disrupted at the school yesterday but she said it was because of a sewer problem and not as a result of the pigeons.
"Yesterday there was a problem with the sewer line, apparently it broke underground and some material got in, clogged it. Work was done into the night to have it fixed. It was because of that problem that classes were dismissed early yesterday."
She said the EFCL has started working to eradicate the pigeons occupying the school's building early last month after the problem was discovered.
"The project manager from the EFCL South office visited the school on January 14 and did some inspections. We already began working on the problem and more work was done over the weekend. We are dealing with the situation."
Only last week students and teachers were forced to stay away from classes at the Point Fortin East Secondary School for at least two days due to a flea infestation problem. TUTTA's President, Rouston Job heavily criticized the Education Ministry for its tardy response in treating with the problem.
Mc Millan said since the flea problem was detected about a week ago, the school was sprayed on at least four occasions.
She said the entire school was sprayed again last Friday as a precautionary measure.
Classes have since resumed at the school but Wilson said TTUTA will continue to monitor the situation to ensure that the problem does not resurface.
Trackback(0)
 |
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
