It’s better to be safe than sorry.
There was a lot of reaction, mostly negative, to the call made by the Ministry of Education to close schools after some persistent overnight showers on Monday, as well as the early morning rain and thunderstorms which led to some flooding.
The main voice heard was that of president of the Clement Payne Movement, David Comissiong, who lambasted the Government for its decision to close all public and private secondary schools because of “a little rain”.
To support his case, the attorney at law and pan-Africanist argued that around the world, students “routinely” attended school even in the “depth of winter” and in “the midst of almost freezing rain and snow”.
He believed Government was doing an injustice to the young students.
Needless to say, Mr Comissiong’s response brought a flood of comments from some Nation online readers who chided him for not being more sympathetic to the children who had to wade through the water.
The reality is, one cannot leave anything to chance particularly when it comes to young people, far less the student population.
It stands to reason that the Ministry of Education followed what is the usual protocol in these matters and therefore would have been guided by the information provided by officials at the Met Office.
It also stands to follow that the ministry, not wanting to put the lives of our young students at risk, acted on that advice and did the responsible thing.
The ministry has a duty to safeguard the well-being of our children.
Another point to consider is that of late, the weather has been at best “dodgy” and while there were reports at times of heavy rainfall and thunder and lightning experienced in the northern parishes, in the south and even central parts it was sunny and bright.
Also, lest we forget, many of this country’s schools are used as hurricane shelters in the event of bad weather.
The Ministry of Education acted promptly in the best interest of the student population. We applaud it for taking the initiative and being swift in its decision to keep the children at home.
Imagine the alternative. What if there was indeed bad weather affecting the country all day and then all efforts had to be made to mobilise students and get them to their respective homes?
Imagine the chaos that would have been created as well as the stress and strain that would be placed on our transportation system.
We therefore stand behind the ministry in it’s decision on Monday. It is always easy to criticise decisions, especially on hindsight with 20/20 vision.
The adage, prevention is far better than cure, still holds true to this day.
