THE PROMISE BY Minister of Education Ronald Jones that Combermere School will reopen for classes at Waterford in January at the start of Term 2 is welcome news. It should end much of the uncertainty and anxiety for students, parents and teachers since the abrupt closure in mid-November.
Yet, there will undoubtedly be some lingering doubts about the safety of the physical environment given all the public comments, especially from some teachers and their union.
There ought to be a lesson learnt from what transpired at Combermere and, before that, the defunct Louis Lynch Secondary and St Leonard’s Girls’, for the nation cannot afford to abandon functioning school buildings. It is important not only to have a public debate on environmental and health concerns, but to have a plan for the entire school plant.
The physical infrastructure and grounds form an important occupational health and safety factor for students, staff and visitors and should be free of any hazards. The environmental problems in recent years affecting some schools indicate that the Ministry of Education must be better prepared to identify and stave off such problems in the future.
There is a certain urgency to put policies and procedures in place to deal with the numerous physical environment issues at the schools. There have been too many instances of inadequate supply of water and a lack of emergency response drills to deal with a range of issues and standard procedures on the management of chemicals for laboratory usage. Matters relating to food or traffic safety or even the instituting of green cleaning practices seem to be off the radar.
There is a need for a functioning occupational health and safety works committee at every school and for a nurse practitioner at schools with enrolments in excess of 500 students.
But it also means that a common-sense and practical approach should be applied to maintenance of the physical plant and grounds. There should be a checklist of things which must be done at all schools during every vacation period to avoid the seeming practice of waiting until there is a total breakdown to undertake major corrective work. This new approach should also eliminate the age-old and bad practice of maintenance work being carried out virtually on the day before school resumes after the extended summer vacation.
These issues cannot be resolved by bureaucrats alone. They call for a united effort involving teachers’ and principals’ unions, the National Council of Parent-Teacher Associations and students’ representatives. Such an approach will ensure support for a comprehensive set of easily formulated and workable regulations.