Parents of pupils attending St John's Anglican Primary School are promising to intensify protest action after the school was virtually shut down following insect vector spraying four weeks ago. Yesterday, parents and members of the school's Parent Teachers Association (PTA) executive gathered outside the school in San Fernando to register their concern with the situation. The school, which was sprayed for termites and cockroaches, was closed after students and teachers began feeling unwell.
PTA president Margaret Jordan said the situation was unbearable.
She added: "There was an infestation (of termites) and they (insect vector) came and sprayed the school on May 4. "Students and teachers started getting sick. Some of them were vomiting and they closed the school. "National tests are going to begin in two weeks and our children have to stay home, They are being held back." Jordan said the executive tried the normal channels to get the Education Ministry to respond to the situation but to no avail.
She said: "We want them to find alternative accommodations for the 134 students because the fumes are making the children sick. "There is no Minister of Education for us to go to now so the only action we have is to protest. We need a solution immediately." Another parent, Zainool Rafeek, said students were being denied a chance to perform well in their tests. Some of the students also started getting rashes. "This is four weeks now. They (students) forget everything by now. "This is a serious situation we have to get this solved now. The children's future and health are at risk," Rafeek added.
Zamina Hosein, of the National PTA's Victoria Regional arm, was also on hand to lend support to the parents protest. "We have heard their plight and we came to assure them we are standing with them. They went to the Ministry of Education and the School Supervisor and nothing was done. We want the ministry to do something," Hosein said. TTUTA president Roustan Job said the ministry had called in Cariri to conduct tests on the school. However, he was yet to receive an update on the results of the tests.