Fire Disruptions Lead to School Cancellations; Education Minister Addresses Concerns

Since the start of the fires in the south, classes have been cancelled on several occasions.  It is an inconvenience, especially at a time when the school year is wrapping up and exams are being held.  Minister of Education, Francis Fonseca, says they have been discussions on ensuring that the students do not lose out on academic hours.  He noted that the fires and smoke inhalation are two of several other factors including the high temperatures.

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs: “We need our students in school. But what we’ve done is we’ve worked with the Ministry of Health to make sure that we put out advisories for the schools, that we make sure that we’re sharing proper advice with the principals and teachers and managers so that they have guidance on how they can help to help their students, you know, to deal with the excessive heat. You’re absolutely right. We’re dealing with. you know, excessive heat across the country obviously has created many problems for us in terms of the areas where we’ve had fires in Toledo. In Toledo we’ve had to close schools on a number of days because of the smoke and fires. So in that case we do close schools. So yeah, it’s an important issue but we continue to work with our managers and with the Ministry of Health to make sure that we are giving proper advice to our schools.”