Some are rat nests. Some are havens for pigeons, frogs, bats, and termites. These classrooms reek of the animals’ faeces, rendering them grossly unsanitary for students’ occupation.
The problems existed long before the passage of Hurricane Beryl, which, for the most part, has made them more apparent or has depleted funds previously earmarked to address them. In some cases, the infrastructural and sanitation issues have set back damage repairs to storm damages, leaving some school administrators disheartened as the new school year begins.
Vince Williams, principal of Tulloch Primary School in Bog Walk, St Catherine, is deeply frustrated. His school is being overrun by large rats that chase students and staff, pee on their books and belongings, and chew into school equipment and supplies at will. Then there are the termites and bullfrogs that leave faeces and respiratory challenges in their wake throughout the school’s buildings.
Williams, who has repeatedly alerted members of the school’s board and the Ministry of Education about the challenges since May, was fuming when he spoke with The Sunday Gleaner last week.
Only Friday, a pest control team sent by the ministry turned up at the premises, embarking on a dash to ferret out the pests before tomorrow’s official start of teaching.
“They (rats) are all over the classrooms and they are leaving their droppings and urinating all over. Over the years, they (Ministry of Education) have allowed the place to run down. They have allowed colonies for the rats to gather, and whatever treatments that were done appear to be superficial,” charged Williams, dismissing the most recent efforts as “another hurry-come-up thing they want to do again”.
“They want school Monday morning and I’ve been telling them no, because there is no way I would let the children here in that. It is bad enough they are here already with orientation this week, but now when you are going to have to physically do the teaching and learning ... ,” he said, defeatedly.”It is unreasonable to expect that to happen. There are teachers here with sinus issues, and they don’t want to restart school, not only with the pest control issue, but also if the wooden infrastructure in some of the classrooms is not restored.”
The grades three, four, five, and six classrooms have been most seriously impacted by the rats and termites that have also taken over the staff and physical education rooms. In some cases, the termites have chewed the whiteboards from the walls.
“It is very embarrassing for us,” bemoaned Williams, reflecting on the predicament his 28 staff members and roughly 340 students now face.
The bathrooms are also not operational, prone to leaking and flooding, and at least eight whiteboards will have to be replaced by tomorrow.
Francine Thompson, physical education and part-time grade four teacher at the school, said it is common to see dead rats in the classrooms, adding that it seems that surviving rats often gather around the bodies or the spots where the rats were found, as if mourning their loss, shortly after the corpses are removed.
“And it’s not just the rats alone. We have some little things with wings that keep falling from the roofs, and I realised that every time I start teaching, I am hoarse and can’t speak,” she said, adding that she suffered a respiratory infection last year that was likely caused by her working environment.
“In the morning when I open the door and I sweep, the amount of insects with wings I see on the ground, they are in piles. You can just take them up with your hands, and that is what goes up in your nostrils,” argued Thompson, adding that the rat and frog droppings and urine are overbearing. She recalled instances where the pests soaked schoolbooks with urine.
On Friday, Williams shared an assessment and estimate from one of two pest control companies, which found that the school was infested with rats, bats, powderpost beetles, birds and roaches. Treatment, the experts said, would require a comprehensive intervention to remove all damaged wood and door jams, implement effective rodent control, and monitor and maintain the system for 12 weeks. That would cost roughly $850,020, Williams noted, adding that the estimate from the other company was also a “little costly”.
Those options were shelved, however, for an unknown contractor provided by the Government, who, despite arrangements to come in the afternoon last Friday, turned up at the school with a team of three men during orientation and preliminary assessments, to begin working.
Williams said they spent the day sitting outside until school cleared out for the day.