Students at the Kingstown Preparatory School were sent home at noon on Thursday, apparently because of a sewage problem — the second school this week.
The Ministry of Education, at 10:45 a.m. Thursday, issued an “URGENT Press Release”, advising parents and guardians of students attending the Kingstown Preparatory School that the school would close at noon.
“This is due to an emergency situation that has arisen at the school and is being addressed,” the ministry said but did not elaborate.
The ministry asked parents and guardians to collect their child/ward at 12 noon and advised that school will resume on Friday, Nov. 30.
However, the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Teachers’ Union, in a Facebook post on Thursday, showing photos of a septic truck parked inside the compound of the Kingstown Preparatory School, apparently emptying the septic tanks.
“It’s the week of septic tank cleaning. The sewerage truck at Kingstown Preparatory School today,” the union wrote.
On Tuesday, the union advised teachers at the Lowmans Anglican School to withdraw their services, with immediate effect because of a sewage problem at the school.
“All the toilets that serve students have not been able to flush since Monday 26th November 2018,” the union said in a press statement, adding that a sewage truck was at the school emptying the septic tanks while school was in session.
The ministry of education was heavily criticised for not closing the school until the sewage situation was remedied.
Classes resumed at the Lowman’s Leeward school on Wednesday.
How many months of Summer vacation are there?
Yet, a few days before school reopens every year in September, there is a mad rush to get things done. I guess the “shit” had to hit the proverbial fan for issues of septic tanks to be considered.
God forbid any student or teacher develops any illnesses from this disgusting situation.
Simply disgusting and unacceptable!
Lets us hope that Ebola doesn’t break out in SVG before the Government do what they are elected to do.
There is a fundamental reason for problems like this that lies at the heart of our Vincy civilization: like nearly all people, the government (which is the political expression of the people in a democratic country like ours) almost never engages in restoration, renovation, upkeep, or preventative maintenance.
For most people or institutions and regardless of their financial resources, it is mainly when something is totally and irretrievably broken — whether an automobile, a refrigerator, a tool of some sort, a building roof, etc. — that it is repaired or replaced.
Those who would doubt this should only look around them for countless examples, the only exception being car washing which is done on a regular basis by most owners of vehicles regardless of how beat up the vehicle in contrast to many developed countries where many people neglect the appearance of their vehicles but make repairs as soon as they are needed.
I leave the explanation for all this to people far more intelligent than me although it is clear that repair and renovation is beyond the means of poor people which does not explain its absence among those with the means to do the repair and renovation.
Human excreta and the lack of adequate personal and domestic hygiene have been implicated in the transmission of many infectious diseases including cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, polio, cryptosporidiosis, ascariasis, and schistosomiasis.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 2.2 million people die annually from diarrhoeal diseases and that 10% of the population of the developing world are severely infected with intestinal worms
related to improper waste and excreta management (Murray and Lopez 1996; WHO 2000a). Human excreta-transmitted diseases predominantly affect children and the poor. Most of the deaths due to diarrhoea occur in children and in developing countries (WHO 1999).
Scientists are debating if diarrhoea is hereditary, because it runs in your jeans.