Life Slowly Returning to Normal at La Inmaculada RC School
Life at La Inmaculada R.C. Primary School in Orange Walk Town is slowly returning to normal. The school administration had to adjust its class hours as they struggled to deal with the foul smell that emanated from the highly polluted New River in recent weeks. Teachers and students began falling ill and swift action from the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health and the Department of the Environment saw classes suspended and ultimately the school hours were adjusted. Today Principal Lenny Umaña said the atmosphere at the school is slowly improving. This means that students will soon be seeing other changes in their class hours, especially since they need to make up on time lost. Meanwhile, the Ministries of Education and Health and D.O.E. will be keeping a close watch on the situation.
Lenny Umaña
Lenny Umaña, Principal, La Inmaculada RC School
“For this week, what has made us feel happier more than anything else is that we have seen an improvement now in the weather effective Wednesday, the atmosphere, sorry. We have seen much improved fresh air I could say and the only thing now that is still my concern is that we have had a large number of students not reporting to school, and when I say large, last week was two hundred and fifty-six students out. Most of them, I would say eighty percent are because they are facing some kind of illness when it comes to throat infection, a flu or a stomach problem. This week I was hoping to see drastic improvement. I still have two hundred and eight students out today which is not good for our school. Our school has boasted with very good attendance, so it’s still a high number for us. Effective next week, we are praying that the river situation keeps improving and we could start getting these children that have been out, some of them from September, to start coming back to school. Next week we will continue the eight to one thirty schedule, which still completes the five and a half hours giving it a break, we are calling it the recovery break so that these children who are out, the two hundred and eight that are still out, can start returning gradually to school. As soon as that is over, on the fifteenth of October we are going to start the make-up classes now, because just like how we lost some hours we have to make them back up and I think we are committed to that. We will still keep the eight o’clock timing because we have to now make up, everyday, at least one to two hours so that we do not stay behind and we will ensure that the curriculum is met.”
