classrooms

School is back in session but teachers are worrying about one more thing besides lesson planning: hot classrooms with no air conditioning which makes teaching and learning near impossible.

Teachers took to social media to vent their frustrations and to plead for fans to cool their sweltering classrooms.

A teacher at Huntley Christie High School in North Andros, Antoine Duncombe said, “Ain’t no way learning can take place. The sun just feels like it’s sitting on earth this time around. These classrooms are hotter than before with two or three working ceiling fans, out of the six.

“This is not conditions teachers and students should have to bare…Please donate three fans for my classroom… We burning up and I out here dressed up daily in shirt and tie.”

Many classrooms in public schools hold approximately 30 students, making it difficult for natural air to blow through the room. And, many classrooms have only ceiling fans which may be inoperable.

It is common for some teachers to purchase fans, but they do nothing to beat the intolerable heat.

A teacher at C.H. Reeves Junior High in New Providence D’Metria Smith begged for assistance from social media users.  “This heat is criminal. Please donate four fans to my classroom.”

In another post, she implored again, “I need four fans please,” as Sharell Edwards of Anatol Rodgers High School solicited an air conditioning unit because “the heat is vicious.”

Cameron Hanna, a teacher in Grand Bahama, described his classroom as “a sauna.”

Classrooms are becoming hotter as global temperatures rise, which can have a dire effect on learning. Summer months are particularly hotter with daytime temperatures reaching about 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

A teacher at Eight Mile Rock High School in Grand Bahama, Prisca Hunt, asked, “Dear Mr Prime Minister, how are we teachers supposed to go the extra mile you requested of us in these scorching, inferno, sauna-degrees classrooms?”

And Canovia Ferguson requested that the government “provide comfortable classrooms for our students–classrooms in which our students can concentrate on what the teacher is saying rather than fighting to sit in front of one of the two fans in the class which was purchased by the teacher by the way.”

Some social media users responded favorably, pledging to donate fans to teachers.

The weather seems to be hotter than in past summers and government may have to consider a new type of cooling unit to ensure comfortable classrooms for learning to take place.

After threatening industrial action, teachers are returning to schools, satisfied with a new industrial agreement in hand.

President of the Bahamas Union of Teachers, Belinda Wilson previously told teachers to prepare for industrial action on their first day back from summer break,  voicing long-standing matters that they expected the government to address.

In fact, a majority of the members voted for industrial action on the first day that they returned to the classrooms. Now they are singing a different tune as the union prepares to sign a new agreement.

Wilson told members, “Don’t worry about the industrial agreement. We gat it covered.”

It appears members are pleased with the new industrial agreement. Its old agreement expired in 2018 and ever since, the union has been in talks with the government, seeking a new agreement. It was reported that talks were hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic and Hurricane Dorian.

A few weeks ago, the union leader met with negotiators and she expressed that teachers were closer “than we’ve ever been to concluding this full industrial agreement.”

Teachers have been lobbying for lump sum payments, improved working conditions, increased allowances, reimbursement for classroom decor, and tuition fees, and a better insurance plan.

It was rumored that most of what the union requested was granted by the government.

Wilson, known for her tough attitude, is seeking reelection as union president next month.