….spraying on school days against Ministry policy
The Ministry of Education, through Permanent Secretary Pulandar Kandhi, at about 10:30hrs yesterday became aware of a situation where a toxic chemical from a spraying exercise conducted at the North Ruimveldt Multilateral School on Monday affected classes there.
This matter was brought to the attention of Mr. Kandhi by the President of the Guyana Teachers’ Union President (GTU), Collin Bynoe. The Permanent Secretary was at the time attending the Parent Symposium at the Guyana International Convention Centre.
Mr. Bynoe had informed Mr. Kandhi that he had asked unionized teachers at the school to down tools since a cleaner at the institution was affected by toxic fumes from the spraying exercise.
A decision was subsequently made by the Principal Education Officer (Georgetown) Mr. Marcel Hutson, to suspend classes for the day at around 11:45hrs in the interest of the children.
The Ministry did engage a contractor to undertake a termite treatment exercise at the school which was conducted on Saturday and Sunday. However, the ministry was informed that the school’s Headteacher, Mrs. Dianne Peters, had requested that the contractor conduct internal spraying of  cupboards on Monday after school was dismissed.
It is the Ministry’s policy to conduct that spraying exercises are not done on school days.
Mr. Hutson, the contractor and two environmental officers from the Ministry of Health visited the school at around 14:00hrs and did not detect anything to cause undue concern in terms of the air quality in the building or the surrounding environment.
Further, staff employed by the contractor cleaned the surfaces of the cupboards and the walls of the building that were sprayed.

At 14:15hrs the GTU President informed Mr. Kandhi via telephone that “everything was resolved at North Ruimveldt Multilateral”.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education was made to understand that the cleaner who claimed to have been affected by the spraying exercise was admitted to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
The Ministry will be monitoring the situation and conduct further investigations into the matter, a statement from the Ministry said last night.