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Tents? No Way!
🇯🇲 Jamaica /Environment & Climate

Tents? No Way!

From Jamaica Observer · () English

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

In-depth Named sources Context piece
  • Middle Quarters Primary and Infant School principal Pauvine Watson-Barrett says heat made an existing classroom tent unusable.
  • The National Education Trust has promised two temporary wooden buildings containing four classrooms, but construction had not started by Monday afternoon.
  • The school may rotate classes or merge students into fewer rooms if the temporary classrooms are not ready.

A tent that once held classes at Middle Quarters Primary and Infant School in St Elizabeth is no longer considered usable because of the heat.

Principal Pauvine Watson-Barrett said students could not remain inside it for a full school day last year. Grade one used the tent initially, followed by grade six after the Primary Exit Profile examination, but classes had to leave by midday.

The school expects 252 students when the new academic year opens next Monday. Watson-Barrett said the National Education Trust had promised two temporary wooden buildings, each containing two classrooms, but no structure or foundation had appeared by Monday afternoon.

The tent cannot be used; it is extremely hot.

— Pauvine Watson-BarrettThe principal rejected the tent as a classroom because students could not tolerate the heat.

She said the contractor was waiting for approval from the National Education Trust. If the buildings are not completed in time, the school is considering rotating classes or merging them into one room.

The Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology and the University of the West Indies Climate Studies Group Mona have warned of potentially severe climate extremes, including hotter and drier conditions linked to El Niño. They urged governments, businesses, farmers and households to prepare during the Caribbean’s peak heat season from August to October.

However, due to the heat the children were not able to use the tent for the entire day. They had to be out of it by midday.

— Pauvine Watson-BarrettShe described the school’s experience using the tent during the previous academic year.
About this summary

Originally published by Jamaica Observer. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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