THE Ministry of Public Health’s Vector Control Unit was, on Monday afternoon, dispatched to the Freeburg Secondary School, at the corner of Norton and Palm streets, to fumigate the building in response to a mosquito infestation that lead to several students being sent home.

While some students were sent home on Monday morning, several teachers and students who remained had to wait until after 10:00hrs to enter the school after they were instructed to spray a specific classroom with bug spray and wait a while before using the classroom.

The Ministry of Education (MoE) informed the public that no school will be held today, Tuesday, 9 April, 2019. Classes will resume on Wednesday, 10 April, and the ministry intends to conduct a thorough investigation to determine the source of the problem, after the closure of public schools, for the Easter Vacation, this Friday.

“It was brought to the attention of the Ministry of Education today [Monday April 8] that there is an issue concerning mosquitoes affecting the Freeburg Secondary School,” according to a statement from the Ministry. MoE’s Public Relations Officer, Murtland Haley, further explained that the Ministry realises that fumigating is only temporary and plans are to have the issue further looked at. “We’re working to fix the problem. We have to get rid of the mosquitoes now then look at the cause of the problem and that process too has started.”

Teachers at the school shared that the issue with the mosquitos was a longstanding one, brought about by a leakage in one of the school’s inoperative washrooms, which often causes flooding, which the mosquitoes use to breed. Though the ministry has addressed the issue in the past by sending contractors to the school to fix the situation, teachers believe the contractors have not done the work properly as they simply fix the surface issue without trying to address the root cause.

The teachers said that, as recent as last school term, last year, contractors again came to look at the issue. “This is a recurring issue it’s a mosquito issue as well as a water issue. They come fix and then it would happen again, come fix then it happen again. It’s a problem with the pipes,” explained one teacher.