Pupils of the Montrose Vedic Primary School, Chaguanas, are being attacked by mites, unseen to the naked eye.
In some cases, pupils have had mild allergic reactions, including shortness of breath.
President of the school’s Parent/Teachers’ Association (PTA), Larry Dilchan, said the situation got worse after a teacher had to be hospitalised for shortness of breath and chest pains. Parents and pupils protested outside the compound yesterday.
Dilchan said the PTA had begun protest outside the school. He said they had decided to give the authorities seven days to respond before they protested.
He said Montrose Vedic is among the top performing primary schools in Chaguanas and its students were always in the top 100 or 200 places in the Secondary Entrance Assessment examination.
The PTA said the school, located in the heart of Chaguanas, is near to the market and food places and was infested with the tiny insects.
The mite problem flared up in October last year. He said sources told him the Ministry of Health, through its County Medical Officer, did not give the school a good outlook.
He said after the mite infestation last year the ministry contracted the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (Cariri) to do an air quality test.
“To date, we have not seen a copy of the report. Cariri told us we could not get it because the ministry was its customer,” he added.
Dilchan said he heard from sources Cariri was not yet paid for the contract.
He said the school which fell under the Vedic Board was the first built by that body 64 years ago.
On Monday, teachers sent a directive to the relevant authorities that classes would be shut down until the school got a clean bill of health, Dilchan told the T&T Guardian.
The PTA suggested some buildings where students could be temporarily relocated until the problem was rectified, including the new Ministry of Tertiary Education and Skills Training (MTEST) building near the Divali Nagar, the College of Science, Technology and Applied Arts of Trinidad and Tobago (Costaatt) on Connector Road and the Enrichment Centre in Carlsen Field for the differently-abled.
All these buildings were constructed by the last administration and to date remains largely unoccupied.