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Dengue, a mosquito-borne viral disease, killed about five students in St. VIncent and the Grenadines between 2020 and January 2021.
Dengue, a mosquito-borne viral disease, killed about five students in St. VIncent and the Grenadines between 2020 and January 2021.
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Students in St. Vincent and the Grenadines have returned to the classroom in their regular uniform — rather than long jeans — despite the dengue fever outbreak that has claimed at least eight lives since 2020, including at least five students.

“The Ministry of Health has authorised schools that students must go back in their full uniform. Somebody is not thinking right,” Oswald Robinson, president of the Teachers’ Union told a press conference on Tuesday.

He said he had listened that morning to a newscast  in which Chief Medical Officer Dr. Simone Keizer-Beache reminded the nation that the dengue fever outbreak continues.

“We are going to remind, as before, that persons need to reduce the breeding sites around their homes and where they are working,” the CMO said on the state-owned NBC Radio.

Last year, at the height of the outbreak, the Ministry of Education allowed students to wear long jeans in place of their traditional uniforms, in an effort to reduce the chances of being bitten by mosquitos at school and contracting or transmitting dengue.

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However, when students returned to the classroom on Monday — for the first time this year — the Ministry of Education said that they were to wear their full uniform.

Robinson said:

“I listened to the news. If I get stats, I get it from the news. If I believe it is a different story. But I am quoting what the Ministry of Health says. That is the Ministry of Health’s statistics, that’s not mine. That’s not the Teacher’s Union’s…”

He said that the CMO has said that dengue is still an issue

“… but we want our students to go back to school in their full uniform rather than going back to what they had in the latter part of last year,” Robinson said.

He said that people would see the conditions at schools that have rivers and streams nearby.

“And as I mentioned earlier, the garbage bins are still there without covers, to collect water,” he said, mentioning an issue that the union had raised during the height of the dengue outbreak.

“And we are talking about eradicating mosquitoes. Prevention is better than cure. We have to destroy the breeding ground,” he said.

“We always want to be reactionary, to be reacting and that is why you see politicians are very good at creating crises and then they come back and say oh leadership.

“They create the crisis to effect the change they want and to their own advantage. And when you speak about it, everybody wants to demonise you. Well that is futile. We have to expose the darkness, what is happening to our people,” Robinson said. 

3 replies on “Union against students wearing regular uniforms amidst dengue threat”

  1. He said it quite right. The MOE & MOH are reactive rather than proactive.

    For the life of me, I cannot understand with a dengue still being a live threat, who will sanction full uniform, most of which leave kids skin exposed.

    These two ministries are crazy! Imagine doing all you can at home to protect your children; while the Ministries leave so many open hazards.

    Protect the children Dear Lord, as its clear we have two headless chickens as Ministries.

  2. Dengue has killed more children than SARS-CoV-2, last year. Yet we are taking more precaution against SARS-CoV-2. Seems like we make policies and protocols on ‘ I feel we should do this’ rather than empirical evidence.

    Anyways, this approach is nothing new…there is a detrimental case of short- sightedness in the government. ,1% growth in the last 15 years. We find the most excused for our unsatisfactory performance….I never see leaders who can give more reasons why there is no – to little growth. Yet if you know the reasons… why aren’t you solving or mitigating their effects? Oh yes, they try somethings but no results! Could it be that they are trying to craft solutions to problems they do not fully understand?

  3. TRUTH YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD says:

    Dengue IS A REAL CONCERN FOR CHILDREN. COVID IS NOT. TYRANTS ARE FAR MORE INTERESTED IN THE COVID AGENDA (and the agendas connected to it) THAN REAL PROBLEMS.

    LISTEN TO THIS EU MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT SAY THINGS OUR SVG GOVERNMENT WANT TO CENSOR!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWnhX64J0bY

    I wish we had a leader like this that actually cares about freedom of the people.Why can’t we have well informed brave leaders like Ron DeSantis or Christine Anderson?

    All over the world most everyone has gotten rid of masks but in SVG we are still indoctrinated with fear and fake science that has been debunked many many times over. As far as masks are concerned the opposition in SVG are the most frightened misinformed politicians on planet earth!

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