Deputy Premier and Minister for Education, Culture, Youth Affairs, Fisheries and Agriculture, Dr the Honourable Natalio D. Wheatley (R7) said contrary to media reports, parents and teachers are ‘quite pleased’ with the temporary school arrangements at Foxy’s on Jost van Dyke. Photo: VINO/File

The Minister said on the VIP Let’s Talk show on February 22, 2022, one media house which was not named, shared misleading information on the situation and he wanted to clear the air on the issue.

The Minister informed that students of Jost van Dyke Primary School had been using the library that was also compromised by the hurricanes like the rest of the school.

“Some efforts were made right after the hurricanes to make the building operable but when they fixed the building, they fixed it with a lot of untreated timber/plywood, and the building just basically has caused a lot of challenges. So we have cleaned for mould, we have put in AC’s, electrical outlets, we fixed plumbing issues and we put a lot of attention into the building last year and a lot of those problems especially the mould have returned,” he stated.

He said it was agreed, and the Acting Chief Education Officer had discussions with the principal about finding a different location for the students, “because most persons did not want to go back online because they were not having a great deal of success online primarily because parents are working.”

Minister Wheatley said many different places were considered but they settled on a location, “on top of Foxy’s, a huge open space.”

He continued: “Of course, this was discussed with teachers and parents. The principal had a meeting and everyone found it to be a favourable situation.”

Misleading information

“We have one media house who happened to go over to Jost van Dyke and among just a few of the persons who honestly, really truly understand because at the time when they were showing the parents the establishment they weren’t present, or perhaps didn’t understand what the situation was at the establishment and gave some very misleading information in their broadcast,” he said.

According to Honourable Wheatley, the media house “mentioned that the students had to share bathroom space with patrons of Foxy’s and that’s not true. I went there today and the students have their own dedicated restrooms for both male and female; quite clean facilities and not interacting with any of the patrons at Foxy’s at all.”

He said he did not witness “one instance where a child interacted with anyone who was a patron at Foxy’s, they had a separate entrance where they walk out and they were not exposed to anyone there at all.”

Quite pleased

The Minister said he held a meeting with teachers and parents “and 100 per cent of the persons who gave feedback including teachers and parents said they were quite pleased with the environment. In fact, they went as far as saying “hurry up and fix the school because they are getting too comfortable there and they may not want to leave.”

He added: “And this is all very contrary to the reports that we received at this one particular media house which I must admit has been one of the main culprits in spreading misinformation.”

He then asked the unnamed media house to refrain from that type of reporting “and to become a lover of the truth.”

Update on new school

In providing an update on the new school he informed that it now has designs completed and about $400,000 has been allocated in this year’s budget for the project and a few more hundred thousand dollars have been promised by donors.

He said the tender is expected to go out soon followed by the awarding of the contract and the construction which will be slated to run for 18 months.

In the interim, a contract was signed for the retrofitting of three trailers to be completed by the end of the Easter break so that face to face instruction can take place inside.