For al­most two weeks, class­es at the Fyz­abad Sec­ondary School have been af­fect­ed af­ter teach­ers re­fused to work due to con­cerns over a sew­er is­sue.

Trinidad and To­ba­go Uni­fied Teach­ers As­so­ci­a­tion’s (TTUTA) In­dus­tri­al Re­la­tions Of­fi­cer Ker­ry Broomes con­firmed that the ma­jor­i­ty of teach­ers at the school signed a re­fusal to work let­ter. He said that waste­water was flow­ing in the drains in the school, caus­ing an aw­ful stench and pos­ing health risks, which the teach­ers find to be un­bear­able.

Broomes said crys­tal chlo­rine was used to treat the prob­lem, but that was in­suf­fi­cient, as it can­not mit­i­gate the ef­fects of air­borne ef­flu­ents.

While of­fi­cials have iden­ti­fied “safe spaces” with­in Fyz­abad Sec­ondary, the TTUTA rep­re­sen­ta­tive said teach­ers still have to walk through un­safe ar­eas to get to the “safe spaces”.

An Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health Au­thor­i­ty (OS­HA) rep­re­sen­ta­tive vis­it­ed the school last week, but Broomes was not sat­is­fied that OS­HA’s re­sponse was in keep­ing with the Act giv­en the re­fusal to work let­ter.

Not­ing that air­borne ef­flu­ents could cause long-term health is­sues, he said the stu­dents’ health was al­so at risk. Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that there was a sim­i­lar is­sue at the school late last term, and the prob­lem flared up again five weeks ago.

While Broomes has ex­pressed dis­ap­point­ment with the “slow pace” of the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion and OS­HA in ad­dress­ing this is­sue, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly has as­sured a so­lu­tion is be­ing sought.

“The is­sue is be­ing ad­dressed. Re­pairs will be com­plet­ed as quick­ly as pos­si­ble,” the min­is­ter stat­ed via What­sApp yes­ter­day.

The school has a pop­u­la­tion of al­most 900 stu­dents and a staff of 95 teach­ers, 44 of whom signed the re­fusal to work let­ter.