Education Ministry to address termite issue at Davis Primary

Following a tour of the school during Heritage Day celebration last Friday Sophia Forbes-Hall, told Old Harbour News that the matter is being addressed.

“The infant department is having a little issue with respect to termite infestation and we are committed. We did the costing already. What we are doing now is going back into the system to see what our commitments are in terms of funding and the timeline to effect the project,” said Forbes-Hall, the MOEY regional director for Region 6 which has responsibility for Davis Primary.

“We want to ensure that our children are taught in a fairly clean environment and the threat of termites is a contradiction of that. So this is something that we are treating with the greatest of urgency,” she added.

Once all the scoping is complete the ministry will advised the school board of when the extermination of the insects will be carried out.

Friday’s tour of the infant department coincided with the school marking Heritage Day which showcased different aspects of Jamaican culture.

The all-day event was an exciting event and one that the MOEY Region 6 chief was happy to highlight.

“It is important in education that we are concern not just about the formal educational programmes that we offer our students but that we are also concerned about the informal such as Heritage Week. And that is what today is about at Davis Primary. The institution, as mandated by the Ministry of Education, has taken time out to expose our children to Jamaican heritage.

“Generally speaking I think the event was well planned. A lot of effort went into the planning. I noticed that the school makes very good use of its parent’s support system because there was a number of parents here helping them with the developing of the booths and so on. It’s really a community affair,” said Forbes-Hall.

October is recognized yearly as Heritage Month with schools and other agencies of the state organizing events to commemorate our National Heroes and cultural legacies.
It is a period within the academic year that students, parents and teachers anticipate with fervor, said Jason Bryan, the school principal.

“It is very significant in that many of our students they don’t know the past. So to know the future you have to know the past. We put different things on exhibition like old clothes, old iron, so the children will learn about their history and where they’re coming from and learn to accept where they’re going,” said Bryan.

Meanwhile Bryan is appealing to the wider community and past students of the school to come aboard plans to mark its 50th anniversary in May of next year.