First Vice-President of the Barbados Union of Teachers (BUT) and Chairman of its Occupational Safety and Health Committee Julian Pierre, is once again urging authorities to establish a consistent schedule for industrial cleaning across all public schools. This is after Deacons Primary School was closed once again due to an ongoing rodent infestation.
Speaking to Barbados TODAY on the sidelines of the union’s Professional Development Workshop at Sky Mall on Thursday, part of activities to mark Teachers’ Week, Pierre noted that an infestation had forced the closure of Deacon’s Primary School earlier in the week on Monday, and once again Thursday.
He also revealed that St Matthew’s Primary School had experienced similar problems with rodents in recent weeks.
“The Deacons Primary School has had a couple of issues with the findings of droppings around the school. The Ministry of Health officials came, inspected, and confirmed in some areas that there were rodent droppings, and industrial cleaning was recommended,’ Pierre said.
“The industrial cleaning was done, however, in a couple of rooms they still found other droppings.”
He said the BUT continues to press the Ministry of Educational Transformation to ensure that contractors providing cleaning services met proper health and safety standards.
He added: “If industrial cleaning is to be done, it should be a full clean, not a partial clean. We would ask that those doing cleaning within schools do what is required under the safety standards.”
The BUT official said the Education Technical Management Unit (ETMU) had since given assurances that corrective work was being undertaken, including rodent-proofing measures, such as installing door sweeps, sealing gaps, and repairing larger windows that could serve as entry points.
He said the situation highlighted the need for a formal maintenance schedule for all schools, especially during holiday periods, to prevent infestations and ensure healthy work environments.
He noted that industrial cleaning at schools had been neglected for years, with many older schools not having undergone deep cleaning in more than a decade.
“You have schools 30, 35, 40 years old that may not have had industrial cleaning in more than 10 years, some not at all,” Pierre pointed out.
He, however, commended recent improvements in the ETMU’s management, saying there had been greater accountability in the quality of work carried out at schools.
“Given the change in management of ETMU, we’ve found improvement in the process, in terms of who gets work and the standard of work. If contractors fall below the standard, then ETMU will do their part to ensure the work is redone. Otherwise, it’s only logical to recommend that someone else gets the job,” Pierre said.
Barbados TODAY has reached out to the Ministry of Education Transformation for comment on Deacons Primary School’s latest closure, but no response has been received.
(SB)
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