Flooding at Scarborough RC affects classes

Students at Scarborough RC were sent home at lunch time on Wednesday due to flooding at the school.
Students at Scarborough RC were sent home at lunch time on Wednesday due to flooding at the school.

Classes at the Scarborough Roman Catholic school were dismissed early on Wednesday as heavy rainfall in the morning resulted in flooding at the school compound. Just around noon, parents and guardians were advised to pick up their children immediately as classes were being affected by water.

The flooding follows an October 8 media release from the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Division of Education, Innovation and Energy revealing a decision to install awnings as part of the solution to the rain blowing into classes and subsequent danger posed by slippery tiles at the newly built school.

The media release said work at the school would take approximately two weeks from October 8, however, Newsday Tobago was informed only one awning was installed and several affected areas remain exposed.

On September 10, a 13-second video was circulated on social media showing a man sweeping water out of a classroom at the school.

THA Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles, who also holds the position of Secretary of the Division, had said the school will be monitored to check if defects in construction caused flooding of classrooms. Calls to Charles’ mobile phone on Wednesday went unanswered.

The school, on Smithfield Road in Scarborough, was commissioned on August 29, and was built at a cost of $85 million. The school boasts of being OSHA compliant and easily accessible for the differently abled, as well as being the first of its kind in TT with three storeys and 27 classrooms to accommodate 750 students, a staff room, a computer room, a cafeteria, sick bay, a library, a chapel and an elevator.

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"Flooding at Scarborough RC affects classes"

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