Psychologist: Poor school conditions may affect students’ mental health

One clinical psychologist says the mental health of children and their ability to learn could be affected by the poor infrastructure at schools.

Clinical psychologist Vandana Siew Sankar-Ali says this is why parents need to work closely with school administration to find solutions to the infrastructural shortfalls in the shortest possible time in the interest of their children’s well-being.

On Monday, the Palmyra Hindu SDMS Primary School was closed on the first day of the academic year because of a rat infestation. Staff also complained of a stench emanating from a room on the compound.

Siew Sankar-Ali said these are legitimate distractions that could prevent children from concentrating on schoolwork.

“If there’s concerns about rats, snakes…we live in the Caribbean, a lot of this is possible,” she said.

The negative impacts could worsen, she said, if the child is aware of the infestation and then becomes afraid of encountering these pests at school.

Yesterday, parents of students attending Mayaro Secondary School staged a protest to call attention to what they described as the substandard state of the school. There were complaints of classrooms without desks or chairs, overgrown bush alongside the school compound, and a partially collapsed structure on the campus itself that could present a health and safety risk to both students and staff.

School prefect Isaiah Moonilal told Guardian Media his classmates were forced to spend hours waiting for access to a usable classroom. He said they also had to spend time in the hot sun as they had limited access to shelter.

Siew Sankar-Ali said there had been a lot of research on the impact the physical learning environment can have on students’ learning and academic performance.

“The research is conclusive, there is a negative impact and so we see that if students are dealing with poor lighting, poor air quality, issues with ventilation—all of these affect a child’s ability to concentrate, pay attention in the classroom,” the clinical psychologist said.

Funding and repairs

Education Minister Nyan Gadby-Dolly has repeatedly lamented the challenges facing the ministry, as it relates to the maintenance of ageing school structures and repairs.

Only on Tuesday, she said the challenges in school repairs stemmed from a lack of sufficient funding. She explained the $5 billion budget allocation for education is mostly used for recurrent expenditure, leaving just $150 million for repairs.

During the Standing Finance Committee meeting on October 17, 2023, in response to a question from Opposition MP Anita Haynes-Alleyne, the minister said ageing schools had placed a lot of pressure on the ministry’s allocation for emergency repairs. However, the Education Ministry also did not make any additional requests to its budget, specifically for school repairs.

On August 19, the Education Ministry released data that showed 55 per cent of primary schools and 39 per cent of secondary schools had passed their design life, and that 50 per cent of its 27 critical infrastructure works were completed for $171 million ($171,269,381.23 specifically) and 93 per cent of the July-August Critical Repair Programme 2023 was completed at a cost of $51 million ($51,731,994.18).

‘Include students in solutions’

Siew Sanker-Ali said parents of students assigned to schools with poor facilities need to be proactive and work with the school administration to find solutions that would benefit their children in the short and long term. “Transparent communication is very important, where parents are free to express how they feel. Teachers should also be able to explain the situation based on the information that is available to them, and I think they need to come together to advocate to the relevant authorities to indicate that the situation is having a particular impact,” she said.

She also said the students should not be left out of the search for solutions, as they are the ones directly affected by the problem. The clinical psychologist stressed input from students should be considered in the solution.

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