There is to be no relocation of students of the Montrose Vedic Primary School, which was infested with mites, anytime in the near future, says Education Minister Anthony Garcia.
Garcia was responding to a question from Couva North MP Ramona Ramdial on the matter in Parliament last Friday.
He said the ministry is not considering a relocation of Montrose Vedic at this time because the school, and nearby market, were fumigated and sanitised and he was confident there would be no repeat of mites in the near future.
“We had a firm with the necessary expertise do a complete fumigation exercise that lasted two days.
“We have been assured by the competent authorities that that should be sufficient.
“We are confident that there will be no re-occurrence of this problem in the near future.”
The school was fumigated on January 4 and 5 and reopened on January 9.
Asked by Ramdial whether he was aware lands were allocated for the relocation of the school, Garcia said he was not.
What he was aware of was that discussions were being held with the school board to identify lands. He said those discussions are still ongoing.
Late last year, in the midst of growing protests by the school, Garcia visited the institution located in the midst of Chaguanas.
He promised school authorities that students, who had been kept away from classes for weeks at a time after being bitten by mites, would be temporarily relocated to the Carlsen Field Empowerment Centre, as recommended by the PTA.
However, that failed to happen as the Government later said the centre was not equipped to accommodate a school.
The school’s Parent Teachers’ Association (PTA) president, Larry Dulchan, in a radio on the day of the reopening of the school, said the PTA was in debt.
He said they contracted a company over the Christmas holidays to fumigate the facility when they felt the ministry was not helping them.
He they need help to pay the remaining fee to the contractor.
Montrose Vedic is one of the top performing primary schools in central, its students always among the top 200 on the Secondary Entrance Assessment examination.
The building, 60 years old, is in the midst of downtown Chaguanas, close to the market and eating establishments.