SCHOOLS ARE AN important part of this island’s landscape.
They are the places where our children go to learn and be socialised. It is at school that they are drilled in the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic and to appreciate the values of honesty and respect.
As one of the pillars of society, school in some instances has been more important to a child than even the home environment. It helps to shape the adults they become.
Despite the strain Barbados’ economy is under, education and health are the two areas which still demand the biggest portions of the national budget.
The requests for funding, particularly at the tertiary level, have been well articulated and documented. But a bigger challenge for this country must be the preparation of its primary and secondary students for the future.
There is an ever-increasing demand on our schoolchildren to learn, but recent incidents indicate that the public must apply more pressure on adults to ensure that the health and safety environment is conducive to learning.
Thousands of students attend public schools every day for about nine months of the year, but the reality is that there is no agency systematically regulating those institutions for indoor environmental health and safety standards.
The existing problems raised by the Barbados Secondary Teachers’ Union about environmental issues at Combermere are some of the reasons for national concern. Staff, students and parents must be genuinely concerned. The memory of the Louis Lynch Secondary School has been a haunting one, and no one will take unnecessary risks.
The Ministry of Education would be well advised to be proactive. This will require that from the start of the summer vacation an inspection should be undertaken of all public primary and secondary schools to ascertain where they stand in relation to indoor environmental issues.
The ministry needs to understand what toxic pest management regulations need to be enforced in and around schools to determine if and where lead and radon are present and to ensure that buildings are free of humidity and mould spore.
A decision must be made on whether to switch to certified green cleaning products in our schools, given the high level of asthma, sinusitis and respiratory problems in Barbados, especially among young children.
This requires that thorough industrial cleanings of the buildings should be done before the start of the next school year in a totally transparent manner.
We cannot fail to have schools which offer a safe and healthy environment. This requires the cooperation of all those with an interest in our education system, particularly the teachers’ unions and the National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations.
In the same way our children and their teachers are held accountable, so must the Ministry of Education as the policymaker in education. A safe school environment is paramount in the delivery of quality education.