Teachers, Students and Parents Fight Back Against Scorching Temperatures

Meanwhile, back in the classroom, the intense heat continues to test schools, forcing staff to adapt quickly to keep students safe. As temperatures climb across Belize, parents and teachers are getting creative to beat the heat. Last night, we showed you how one school is adapting. Tonight, we head to Burrell Boom Methodist School, where staying cool isn’t easy, but giving up isn’t an option. Here’s how they’re coping under pressure.

 

Lincoln Jones, Teacher, Burrel Boom Methodist School

“We see that our students are sweating profusely. Even the books, their sweats are dripping off their face onto their chin and on the papers. And so we decided, like I said, that we need to beat the heat. The classrooms are extremely hot, and even though the windows are open and we’re in the upper echelon of our building it is still hot. The wind that is blowing on the inside is very hot. We have something going on that we call Beat the Heat. Much water is needed. So the kids have their water bottles and in each class we have a dispenser that emits that of cold and hot water. But we don’t want any hot water at this time. Apart from that, we have our computer lab. We have our teachers rotating their class on various days to go inside the lab to cool down quite a bit. We ask our students to refrain from running on the compound and getting rather hot. We don’t want any problems when it come to that of the heat.”

 

Shane Williams

“Tell us about how your child is dealing with the heat and how you prepare him to come to school in on these hot days?”

 

Sherie Westby, Parent

“A lot of showers and water. Have to have water. Sometimes I put ice in the bottle because he has a thermos so the water could stay cold for a lee while. And he drink lot and lot of water. And sometimes the class, if I notice the class don’t have water, I would give the money to the teacher to buy water. So I would contribute just ’cause I know he drink a lot of water. Da no lie, I don’t want to come out here right now, but I have to. What else could I do? We have to send them to school. They can’t stay home. The heat is hot, but we have to do what we have to do.”

 

The Ministry of Education says managing authorities have made requests to adjust uniform policies and class schedules to cope with the heat and they encourage flexibility.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

Watch the full newscast here: