By Kingsley Emmanuel
THE infestation of flies, coupled with a stench from nearby chicken farms in Augier, Vieux Fort have forced the Augier Combined School to be temporarily relocated.
And a member of the school’s Parent Teachers Association (PTA) has taken the authorities to task for failure to resolve long standing complaints about the effects of the odour of the poultry farms on the school’s teachers and students.
The PTA member, in an open letter to Prime Minister Kenny Anthony, parliamentary representative Alva Baptiste, Agriculture Minister Moses Jn.Baptiste and Education Minister Robert Lewis has taken offence with the composition of a government delegation sent to the area last week to look into the situation.
The school is now relocated at two buildings in the community, the basement of the Augier Evangelical Church and the Parish Centre of the Roman Catholic Church.
The relocation was effected last` week after the problem became unbearable, resulting in several teachers and students falling sick.
“As it relates to the teachers, over the past couple of weeks they have had itchy skins, throat irritation, burning eyes, and shortness of breath and running noses. This is of much concern to everybody,” Principal Kagana James lamented.
She said the long standing problem of the odour from the farms has seriously affected the operations of the school several times during the year.
According to the principal, the new locations have created a bit of a challenge for them, adding that they are grappling with it.
“The situation is a bit problematic because we can only accommodate three grades. Priority was given to the examination grades…” she said.
James said due to the unpleasant situation approximately one third of the school’s population is out of school at the moment.
According to her, despite the constraints they are faced with, the teachers are still working to the best of their ability.
She called on the parents to play their part in assisting the situation. “We are urging the parents to do remedial work with the children. A lot of information time has been lost due to the situation and we can’t make up for it..,” James explained.
She said the Ministry of Education is very concerned about the situation. “We are hoping that when school re-opens on April 11, all of us can return to the compound where we have grown used to,” James said.
But the “open letter” from a member of the Augier Combined School P.T.A.has taken the issue to a new level.
The letter from the PTA member to the Government Ministerread: ”On Wednesday 16th. March 2016, you insulted us, the parents with children attending the Augier Combined School. For over 22 years, the school has been disrupted by the smells from farms nearby the school. To discuss this very sensitive issue you send scapegoats, an overworked principal and the education officer. If it wasn’t for the direction of the principal in controlling and redirecting the meeting, the mouth piece from the Ministry of Education would have been chewed out.
“Mr. Ministers, no longer are we ignorant agrarian people but our parents are now made up of a cadre of intelligent professionals who see through the nonsense that successive governments continue to spew. How and why these farmers where allowed to continue to operate a thriving business at the expense of the health of the teachers and students is appalling to us. This situation affects the entire community. Is no one concerned that an entire generation from our community is being made sick by the fumes and pilot ants from these farms? Is this a conspiracy theory to wipe out a generation of Augier’s children and have them succumb from sicknesses left to be determined?
“Is it that the lives of our heartbeats, our most precious jewels, our babies are so inconsequential that your solutions continue to be the same? Whether it be long term, short term or otherwise, We demand answers!
“Children and teachers have fallen sick, are still sick….where is the concern? Where is the compensation? School insurance only covers accidents at, near or during school related activities. This is not just a problem of the stench; on a windy day from the school’s playing field the feathers from the chicken coops are visible. Our children view it as a source of amusement and play with then but what really are they playing with? Teachers continue to feel burning sensations on their skin, children have persistent coughs and runny noses….aren’t these reasons for concern?
“Right now children in Grades K, 1, 3 and 5 have been asked to remain home as there is no location from which they can receive instruction which is supposed to free for all. These Grade 5 students are the very same who some six years ago where displaced from the school at Augier Combined…..same process…no new solutions.
“This is what we demand…… When will the farms be relocated….no long term, short term lingo…..time is measured in months….we need dates….is the air quality at the school to be tested before our little ones are asked to report there? This has to be done….will we hear an allocation being made in this year’s budget specifically geared towards relief for the school? Everyone is being taken care of…..farmers are getting assistance of all sorts….do these farmers operate from a lease? When and how will they be held culpable for the public nuisance that they have repeatedly been guilty of? Are eggs more important than this nation’s future? Why are the school and community tied up and affected negatively by a nasty family dispute amongst the farmers? Can’t the school be relocated, whether short term or permanently? This time, no mouth pieces….we demand your presence and insist that the Augier Combined School’s PTA be included at meetings to discuss the future of our children”.