Eden Lodge Primary School is to remain closed until further notice amid an investigation into a pungent odour that has disrupted classes on at least three days this week, with staff and students reporting burning eyes, nausea and dizziness.
The school will be closed on Friday as investigations continue into the odour detected nearby, the Ministry of Education Transformation said on Thursday.
The announcement follows early dismissals on at least three days this week after staff and students detected a strong odour, which some suspected was caused by a gas leak.
When Barbados TODAY visited the school on Wednesday, fire officials and officials from the Barbados National Oil Company were on the campus investigating the odour.
“The Ministry of Education Transformation continues to work closely with the Ministry of Health and Wellness to investigate the source of malodor detected around the environs of the Eden Lodge Primary School plant, which also houses a section of the Good Shepherd Primary School population,” said the statement.
It continued: “Out of an abundance of caution, the ministry has decided to allow the school(s) to remain closed until further notice and environmental testing is carried out. Parents, teachers and staff will be apprised of these results once they are made available.”
Julian Pierre, who chairs the Barbados Union of Teachers’ occupational safety and health committee, told Barbados TODAY that the school’s shop steward had reported a “foul odour permeating somewhere around the property or surrounding areas of the Eden Lodge Primary School”.
The odour affected both students and teachers, he said.
“Persons on the compound, both adults and the students, complained of some symptoms including itching and burning eyes, itching skin and bitter taste in the throat; some persons complained of feeling nauseous and also a spate of dizziness,” said Pierre.
Barbados TODAY returned to the school on Thursday after a parent reported that students had been dismissed shortly after classes started. Another parent called around midday to say the school also sent the remaining students home.
Parents collecting their children expressed frustration at the disruption.
“This is nonsense…it don’t make no sense, I all in the north, every time you gotta left work, these people aint refunding you for your work,” one parent said.
Another mother said parents had been told to send their children to school, only to be asked to collect them shortly after they arrived.
“Something bout gas leak yesterday, today now they send an email saying that school open today and as soon as the children get to school, come and pick them up,” she said.
“If you know something wrong with the school, let the children stand home, ‘cause parents gotta be scrambling; some people ain’t gotta nobody to send, all these kind of foolishness.”
A father said he had not been informed of the problem or what was happening at the school: “They ain’t tell us what is the problem; I ain’t know what’s going on.”
He said he planned to take his daughter to work with him on Friday to avoid further confusion.
(LG)
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