RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

An­oth­er round of san­i­ta­tion took place at the Na­pari­ma Col­lege in San Fer­nan­do yes­ter­day, even as a sec­ond pri­ma­ry con­tact of a Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion em­ploy­ee who works on the com­pound test­ed neg­a­tive for the virus.

Al­though the col­lege com­pound has been fu­mi­gat­ed for three days in March, par­ents con­tin­ue to raise con­cerns about the safe­ty of stu­dents who re­main on the com­pound.

On March 12, an em­ploy­ee of the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion’s Vic­to­ria Ed­u­ca­tion Di­vi­sion test­ed pos­i­tive for the virus and three days lat­er, on March 15, stu­dents re­turned to the com­pound.

How­ev­er, a par­ent said on­ly some stu­dents were ad­vised to stay off the com­pound.

“Many par­ents were sched­uled to drop off labs on the com­pound on the 16th of March based on teach­ers’ di­rec­tives. Be­cause there were no of­fi­cial mes­sages sent by the act­ing prin­ci­pal to teach­ing staff, par­ents and teach­ers were un­sure how to pro­ceed to fur­ther guide the chil­dren,” the par­ent said yes­ter­day.

Guardian Me­dia was told that the main of­fice was closed on Tues­day from 1 pm to fa­cil­i­tate sani­tis­ing.

“Teach­ers have been promised that the head of de­part­ment and deans of dis­ci­pline will be guid­ing the process and to date, there are no clear di­rec­tions ex­cept telling the stu­dents to call the of­fice,” the source said. 

On­ly stu­dents cur­rent­ly prepar­ing for the Caribbean Ex­am­i­na­tion Coun­cil (CXC) ex­ams lat­er this year are cur­rent­ly al­lowed to par­take in in-per­son class­es.

On Mon­day, the chair­man of the Sec­ondary Schools Board of Ed­u­ca­tion, Chris­t­ian Dookhoo, said all COVID-19 pro­to­cols are be­ing fol­lowed. He said the school was fu­mi­gat­ed twice, on March 12 and 13, ac­cord­ing to di­rec­tives from the Min­istry of Health.

Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly al­so told Guardian Me­dia that sev­er­al mem­bers of staff from the Vic­to­ria Ed­u­ca­tion Di­vi­sion who were deemed pri­ma­ry con­tacts of the pos­i­tive work­er were all quar­an­tined. She not­ed that all per­sons in­volved in this case have been fol­lowed up with by the Min­istry of Health’s Sur­veil­lance Unit and none were cur­rent­ly symp­to­matic.