Gadsby-Dolly: Sanitisation stations at schools for reopening Monday

EDUCATION Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly on Friday said schools scheduled to partially reopen on Monday have been equipped with sanitisation stations, replying to an urgent question in the House of Representatives from Couva South MP Rudranath Indarsingh.

The ministry has said students from forms four to six will attend school only to do lab work and practical activities towards marks for the school-based assessments (SBAs), which make up 20 per cent of marks for science subjects at Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) CSEC exams, while lectures will be done online.

Gadsby-Dolly said, “Most schools would have had sanitisation stations installed in 2020 to accommodate CXC and SEA exams in July and August of that year.

“As a matter of priority, all secondary schools which have indicated a need for additional or replacement stations have been supplied with sanitisation stations."

She said two schools, San Juan South Secondary and Five Rivers Secondary, will be outfitted before Monday.

Primary schools and ECCE centres which require additional stations are currently being outfitted with them, she said.

Indarsingh asked about TTUTA’s claims that some schools lack sanitisation facilities.

Gadsby-Dolly replied, “The schools which require additional or replacement stations have indicated and those have been fulfilled.”

Indarsingh asked another urgent question about the water supply to Couva West Secondary School, which the minister said had been completed.

In a supplemental, he asked if that school's previous problem of bad air quality had been remedied, but Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George said that question had been answered in Gadsby-Dolly’s assertion moments earlier that the school was fully functional to facilitate pupils.