By MORGAN ADDERLEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

madderley@tribunemedia.net

EDUCATION Director Marcellus Taylor said yesterday there was a “build-up of dirt” not mould that created the “unsanitary situation” at CW Sawyer Primary School that forced the school’s closure last week.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Ministry of Education’s Student Refocus Week, Mr Taylor also addressed the issue of scabies at Sybil Strachan Primary School. News broke of the outbreak on Wednesday, which resulted in the school being closed on Thursday and Friday.

However, Mr Taylor said the first case of scabies was actually reported at the school from the previous Wednesday (January 30) and was being dealt with.

He said classes at Sybil Strachan resumed yesterday morning, adding classes at CW Sawyer were delayed slightly, until the afternoon, to allow fumes from the cleaning supplies to “air out”.

When asked about the issue of mould, Mr Taylor said: “Let’s be clear — there wasn’t any mould at levels that were unhealthy at any school.

“What the public analyst said was that really, it was ‘housekeeping issues’, meaning that there was a build-up of dirt that needed to really be cleaned and so forth. And so we comply when the experts tell us what we should do.”

He added cleaning was done over the last two working days and the weekend.

“I got some reports that the beginning of classes (was) delayed slightly because the windows were closed and some of the fumes from the cleaning supplies was there so we needed to give it time to air out. But by lunch time classes should resume as normal — that’s at CW Sawyer.”

Mr Taylor said the welfare of students and teachers is the department’s “number one” concern for education officials.

“But there is a point at which you must be reasonable with what we are doing,” he continued. “And so when we got reports that teachers suspected mould there, we asked the public analyst from Environmental Health to go in and check, as we have done in a number of cases. He went in and he indicated that there was no mould but, that there was a build-up of dirt and it was (an) unsanitary situation and that it ought to be cleaned.”

Mr Taylor then addressed the scabies outbreak.

“As it regards to Sybil Strachan, again, this matter was going on from - not Wednesday gone but the Wednesday before. We have called in the health professionals, they advised on what should be done. And then everything was going fine until such time as an (agitator) came and sort of stirred it up and created doubts in the minds of the teachers as to whether that was a safe environment.

“Public Health official persons came back, led by Dr Moxey, explained the protocols. There were some teachers who said that they wanted, still, even though they didn’t present any symptoms, still wanted some precautionary measures taken. They were given the prophylactic and they were instructed as how to take it.

“We expect that, at this point in time (at) Sybil Strachan, classes should be going on as normal, that students are learning and teachers are teaching, as is the agreement we have with everyone. You come to school to learn, you come to school to teach, and only when there is a reasonable concern about health should we be responding or changing our plans of operation. So, from my knowledge, classes are going on at Sybil Strachan as well.”

When asked the final number of affected students, Mr Taylor admitted to not having a final figure, noting he last heard roughly 15 students.

Last week, Health Minister Duane Sands estimated roughly 18-23 students could have been infected.

The Ministry of Education’s Student Refocus Week initiative is an extension of the student suspension programme, where suspended youths receive tutoring at various centres during their time away from school.