Oct 25 - GSD Say New St Joseph’s Annexe Is “Unfit for Purpose”
The GSD has said it is concerned about the adequacy and subsequent delay of the opening and use of the new facilities for St Joseph’s First School.
“On September 6th,” explains a spokesperson for the Opposition, “with the usual fanfare, the Minister for Education showed the media around the new six classrooms and hall facilities which had been built in what was described by Government as a record eight week period over the summer.”
The Opposition says it is aware that the facility is not yet in use as it is “not fit for purpose.”
“Despite the desperate need for more classrooms in order to make first school classrooms smaller,” says the party, “e.g. the teacher-pupils ratio in Reception has gone up, on average, from 1 teacher for around 18/19 pupils to 1 for about 23/24 as a result of an increase in the number of families now residing in the South District, this has not yet happened.”
The statement continues: “Despite the so-called Health & Safety programme for all Government schools, this new facility seems to have slipped through the net. The Opposition have learnt that the annexe has been built in a rushed manner, where corners have been cut and little thinking has gone into the planning of the facility. It is no wonder it is still not in use as it is inadequate and poses a potential danger to the very young pupils for whom it is intended to provide.”
A spokesperson for the party concluded: “The GSD has learnt that sound-proofing is poor between the floors, noise from the upstairs lunch hall interferes with learning in the classrooms below; the classroom doors (fire doors) are so heavy that the children cannot open them and are a dangerous risk if children catch their fingers in them. The cables for the light switches are not chased into the walls but encased in trunking, attached to the outside of walls, where they can be easily pulled off by little hands. The toilet facilities are designed for adults, with sinks that are too high for children to use; and the classrooms themselves become too hot on warm days even with the fans provided and will most probably become too cold in the damp, winter months to come, without any heating.”
