School bells ring but concerns linger in South Trinidad

Amid smiles and ner­vous glances across South Trinidad yes­ter­day, chil­dren re­turned to school, some rac­ing to greet old friends while first-time pupils clung a lit­tle tighter to par­ents who were not quite ready to let go.

But for some fam­i­lies, the ex­cite­ment of a new school term was tem­pered by traf­fic con­ges­tion, tem­po­rary class­room arrange­ments and un­fin­ished prepa­ra­tions. At one school, teach­ers were still clean­ing while stu­dents wait­ed at a near­by church.

At San Fer­nan­do Sev­enth-day Ad­ven­tist Pri­ma­ry School, the first day of class­es be­gan with teach­ers and staff prepar­ing the build­ing while stu­dents re­mained at the ad­ja­cent Sev­enth-day Ad­ven­tist Church. The school had been closed af­ter an Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health (OSH) pro­hi­bi­tion no­tice was is­sued near the end of the last term. Its re­open­ing yes­ter­day brought dif­fer­ing ac­counts over the con­di­tion of the build­ing and its readi­ness to ac­com­mo­date stu­dents.