Philipsburg:--- Students of the Oranje School are facing some serious health risks and the Department of Education has so far failed to render assistance to the school.
On Monday parents of a six year old girl told SMN News that the dilapidated gate at the school fell on their six year old daughter and they had to rush her to the St. Maarten Medical Center for medical assistance. The father and mother of the child said that this is the second time the heavy Iron Gate has injured students and the Department of Education has not responded to the calls of the school to have the gate repaired. SMN News spoke to some teachers who said two years ago the same gate fell on a male student and his leg was broken. They said the school Principal sent several letters to the Department of Education and not once they responded to the letters that were sent to them.
One of the teachers who preferred to remain anonymous fearing that they might be severely victimized said that the school ending up using its own funds to repair the gate when the Department of Education did not respond to them. "We do fundraisers here and when we realized that a child's leg was broken because of the heavy gate that would slip off its track we used our monies and repaired the gate. On Thursday another child got injured and we are still awaiting the results and report from the doctor who attended to her at the St. Maarten Medical Center.
Besides the gate, the water cooler that the children have to drink water from is in an unsanitary condition while the school yard is cleaned once per month by a private company.
The teachers said that they had six cleaners at the school that were responsible for cleaning the classrooms and two of them left recently and to date they have not been replaced. They said five months ago the gardener/cleaner who was responsible for cleaning the yard went on pension and they submitted a request to the Department of Education to have them appoint someone to clean the school yard but to date that appointment has not been made. They said a company was contracted to clean the school yard once per month and students and teachers attending the school have to deal with the garbage that piles up around the school yard. "We have over three hundred students attending this school so you can imagine what the teachers and the students have been going through these past five months"
SMN News visited the school on Monday to take photos and to obtain a comment from the Principal of the school Ms. Sonia Parrotte- Warner on the ongoing health and hygiene risks at the school but the Principal also refused to comment fearing that she too might face victimization from the Department heads.
SMN News also visited the Department of Education on Monday to obtain a comment from the Head of the Education Department Mrs. Glenderline Davis Holiday but she was not in office.
Minister of Education Silveria Jacobs confirmed some weeks ago at the Council of Ministers' weekly press briefing that she ordered an investigation into the functioning of the Department of Education. The Minister had also sent home the head of the department for one month when she initiated the investigation.
Click here to view more photos of the Oranje School yard.
