BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Mar 25, CMC – Education, Technological and Vocational Training Minister, Kay McConney, has advised that all schools across Barbados must now be guided by a vector protocol after two schools were closed temporarily due to rodent infestation.
Chief Education Officer, Dr. Ramona Archer-Bradshaw, said the protocol is being created between the Ministry of Educational Transformation, the Ministry with responsibility for Health, and other stakeholders.
She said this is “to standardise how these matters are prevented, including the disposal of food, cleanliness of our school facilities, and if incidents with rodents do occur, be addressed and dealt with in quick and decisive order”.
The authorities had been forced to close down at least two schools to allow for industrial cleaning and retrofitting of a number of areas.
The chief education officer said that this has since been completed and the schools were toured by several stakeholders including the Education Minister.
She said one of the schools has since re-opened and the stakeholders were pleased with the level of remediation and are committed to working with the school’s board of management and the principal in ensuring that continued checks are done in an effort to facilitate smooth operations at the school.
The chief education officer said that the other school, “over the course of the last five days, the Ministry through the Education Technical Management Unit, in consultation with the advice of Vector Control has carried out mitigating work to address areas of concern that were highlighted during a visit to the school last week”.
The chief education officer said that after a walkthrough by the relevant stakeholders, a decision had been taken to re-open the school on Monday.
“However, on their return…staff identified some breaches not noticed previously that could adversely affect the teaching-learning process at the school.
“Hence, on further investigation, and in the interest of the health and safety of staff and students, the decision was made to suspend classes at the school from Tuesday, March 25, 2025, until such time as those issues can be addressed effectively.
“Whilst the school continues to receive urgent attention relative to the presence of rodents, it has been determined that the plant needs a comprehensive cleaning, so as to complement the other measures being taken to eradicate the rodents that were at the school.”
CMC/af/ir/2025