Education ministry ramps up year-round school repairs, safety fixes

The Ministry of Education Transformation has rolled out an aggressive, year-round school repair programme and intensified safety and security standards to ensure that classrooms remain safe, resilient and fit for purpose for students, teachers and staff.  

The measures were outlined by ministry officials during the House Estimates hearings on the ministry’s near-$290m allocation. Infrastructure upgrades and safety reforms now form a central pillar of the ministry’s wider transformation agenda, they said.  

“We will fix and modernise our schools. We must continue to make them safe, attractive and resilient,” Minister of Education Transformation Chad Blackman told fellow lawmakers.  

He suggested that learning environments must be “welcoming, attractive, digitally enabled, and be able to withstand bad weather”, noting that schools also serve as emergency shelters.  

“We must always bear in mind that our schools are also shelters, and therefore we are building and refurbishing with this in mind. Everyone, children, teachers, support staff, school leaders, and parents, benefits most from spaces that honour dignity and inspire creativity.”  

Some 66 primary schools have already been refurbished during the current financial year, with 35 more scheduled for the upcoming 2026–27 financial year, which begins in April, Blackman disclosed. He stressed that upgrades no longer take place only during the traditional vacation period.  

Responding to concerns raised by St Michael North West MP Neil Rowe about maintenance issues at Deacons Primary, Eagle Hall Primary and St Stephen’s Primary, Blackman said the ministry had shifted to a continuous refurbishment model.  

“The ministry has a very aggressive programme with respect to the maintenance of schools,” he said. “Before, the majority of the work done in our schools, particularly through refurbishment, would have been done throughout the summer period, but we’ve made a very decisive decision that this must continue not only in summer but throughout the year.”  

He acknowledged the challenge of carrying out works while schools remain in operation.  

“We have to refurbish the schools whilst at the same time allowing for teachers and students to go in and to be able to receive tuition. But we’ve learned throughout the years that it can’t be done only through that eight-week period in summer.”  

Director of the Education Technical Management Unit Wayne Baker confirmed that the three schools referenced will undergo major works during the summer recess.  

“The Eagle Hall Primary School forms part of the Skills for the Future project and the other two sets, St Stephen’s Primary and Deacons Primary, will be having major work done during the summer period under the Education Technical Management Unit,” he said.  

Baker added that tenders for St Stephen’s and Deacons, along with other schools, would go live with a closing date of March 25 to allow work to begin early and conclude before the start of the 2027 academic year. At Deacons, new louvres have already been installed in the northern block, with additional works planned during Easter and more extensive upgrades scheduled for summer.  

Refurbishment efforts also reflect a shift in school design, pointing to the Wilkie Cumberbatch Primary School as an example of new classroom models, Blackman said. 

“What the country will now see is new modes of how classrooms are structured because we’re moving away from the chalk and talk type of model,” he said. “So at the same time, yes, we’re refurbishing but we’re also building out what the future of schools look like in the country.”  

Safety reforms have progressed alongside physical upgrades. Chief Education Officer Dr Ramona Archer-Bradshaw confirmed that a national safety and security policy has received approval and will be circulated shortly.  

“No learning can take place in an environment unless the students feel safe, staff feel safe, parents, when they visit the compound, they feel safe,” she said.  

Deputy Chief Education Officer with responsibility for schools Julia Beckles said interim protocols have already been implemented across the system.  

“We have placed security guards in all of our primary schools,” she said, noting that visitor registration logs are now mandatory at school gates and that principals must communicate visiting procedures in writing to parents and guardians.  

Beckles added that the ministry has supported schools experiencing break-ins by strengthening physical and technological security measures. She also outlined enhanced responses to environmental hazards, including smoke from fires.  

“We have a wonderful relationship with the Barbados Fire Service, and any time we get information that there is even the smallest sighting of a fire, we are able to be in contact with them,” she said.  

Schools must now notify the ministry one week in advance of drills to allow oversight and coordination with agencies such as the Barbados Police Service, while also preventing public alarm when large numbers of students assemble outdoors.

Blackman said all schools now operate health and safety committees, with the ministry maintaining regulatory oversight while encouraging day-to-day ownership at the institutional level. Training has been expanded to equip staff to respond to emergencies before first responders arrive, and protocols governing the storage and use of chemicals have been strengthened.  

The ministry is also working with the Ministry of Transport to establish designated school zones to improve road safety, said Blackman. This follows a near-fatal accident in February 2025 in which six-year-old Dakari Edwin from Westbury Primary was struck by a car along President Kennedy Drive.  

Digital safety has also become a focus to give “teachers and students and the parents as well that training and support so as to ensure that our children are protected”, Blackman said.  

“So it’s a very comprehensive exercise that we’ve embarked upon, but the work continues.”