Term displacement

The scene at Lawrence T. Gay Memorial School was of chaos and confusion on Wednesday morning as students and teachers were relocated to three churches pending more investigations by the Ministry of Health into ongoing environmental concerns at the school.

When a team from Barbados TODAY visited in the morning, parents complained about the lack of preparation for the move and expressed concern there were not enough buses to transport the students to Sharon Moravian Church, Church of Christ The King and Grace Hill Moravian Church, where they will have classes for the time being.

Their fears were realised with many of them revealing in the afternoon that several students had missed portions of their morning classes due to a lack of coordination. There were also delays in transporting the children back to the school for their parents to collect them.

Treasurer of the school’s Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) Juliette Weekes said the transportation situation both in the morning and afternoon had frustrated parents.

“I am also understanding that the Transport Board does not have enough buses and this is something that we were dealing with from last week. So, I think this morning when the children came out they should have been more organised. It should not have been this much chaos,” she said.

“This evening, it’s 3:30 and [one of] the parents has been here for a while and is still waiting for her child so she cannot feel good. I think better needs to be done.”

The relocation of students and staff from the Spooner’s Hill, St Michael school is the second in almost three years.

Complaints of a pungent, gaseous smell that caused staff and students headaches, burning throat sensations, burning eyes and/or itchy skin forced the school to close in 2016 and in 2019. Then in January 2020, they were relocated to the churches where classes were conducted.

Classes were also disrupted in May this year and the school was closed again.

PTA president Steffanie Williams told Barbados TODAY the multiple closures and relocation had become untenable and a solution needed to be finalised urgently for the sake of the children, all of whom she said have endured multiple disruptions to their education.

“I think it’s about time this situation is resolved because our children are being placed at a disadvantage. They are losing a lot of teaching time that we are already trying to make up for from when we had COVID, and now it’s this situation again, which is unfortunate,” she said.

“As a parent, though, it can be overwhelming seeing that my child is displaced [constantly]…. This term she is stable, the next two terms you don’t know what is going to happen…. She has a teacher that she really loves, she is enjoying school and she wants to come to school [but] these disruptions for me, it just feels overwhelming sometimes.”

Though she acknowledged that the Ministry of Education had been open to having discussions with parents to chart a way forward, the situation was in need of a permanent fix, rather than a temporary one.

“What I would say is that I have spoken to the Chief [Education Officer] and they are looking to do what they have to do, but my thing is – and this is my thought as a parent – I feel that some of the things that have already been done are the same things that are going to be done,” Williams said.

A disgruntled parent who requested to remain anonymous demanded answers from the authorities on the way forward.

“…. It’s affecting my job, my daughter fell behind tremendously with COVID, the number of shutdowns they had back and forth. You don’t know what is happening [at the school]…. We really do not know what is happening and it’s very frustrating….

“It seems as though we are just running around in circles continuously, over and over in circles. Nobody can say anything, nobody is telling us anything, and it’s very frustrating,” the parent told Barbados TODAY.

Late tonight, the Ministry of Education, Technological and Vocational Training (METVT) released a statement indicating that it was on October 31 it became aware of the continued discomfort experienced by some teachers at the Lawrence T Gay Memorial Primary School as a result of a reported offensive odour.

“The METVT, in an effort to ensure that children at the school continued to be educated without disruption, and to investigate the reports made by the teachers, took the decision to relocate those students and teachers whose classes had been reportedly affected. The statement said the relocation was expected to continue until the end of Term 1.

“It is to be noted that on Friday, November 4, the METVT met with the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) to discuss the concerns expressed by those teachers who had been reportedly affected.

“On Sunday, November 6, the Ministry met with parents and guardians to inform them about the outcome of the meeting with the BUT and about the imminent relocation of some classes to the three sites. All parents/guardians had been notified of the meeting via the regular channels of communication for matters concerning the school.

“The METVT, along with the Ministry of Health and Wellness, the Ministry of Labour, Social Security and Third Sector, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Security the Environmental Protection Department, and its private sector partners, will continue investigations on the compound of the school and its immediate environs,” the release noted.

shamarblunt@barbadostoday.bb