By:
Jenique Belgrave
While public primary and secondary schools are set to re-open for Term II (Hilary) next week, an air of mystery still surrounds whether the gates of the Combermere School will also swing open.
With school scheduled to resume on Monday, January 9 for teachers and Tuesday, January 10 for the student population, parents and staff remain in the dark as to what will happen at the Waterford institution.
However, Alex Macdonald, head of the the six-member committee which was selected to liaise with the Ministry of Education over the closure of the school, expressed that group’s belief that it should be business as usual at the educational institution.
He told The Barbados Advocate yesterday that while the committee had sent correspondence to the school’s Parent/Teacher Association, the Barbados Secondary Teachers Union and the Education Ministry indicating its strong support for the school to reopen next week, the latter had yet to respond with its decision.
“We strongly support its reopening because based on the scientific information received from the tests conducted, and also from our own independent experts, there did not appear to be anything chronically wrong with the school,” he said.
Combermere School was closed in mid-November due to environmental issues, especially the return of a pungent odor, which has been affecting teachers and students since 2015 leading to several of them falling ill.
Noting that investigations had shown issues such as backed up toilets, uncovered drains and other areas that were responsible for creating foul odors, Macdonald said that these could be handled properly with general cleaning and proper maintenance.
While efforts to reach Education Minister Ronald Jones or Chief Education Officer Karen Best for comment failed yesterday, the Barbados Advocate understands that a meeting is to be held later this week to outline the ministry’s decision.
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