Glad that Govt. is relooking at the status of school cleaners

Sep 26, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
We have seen and heard very much concerning the plight of the nation’s sweeper/cleaners. However the true picture of events has not been told. What we have witnessed is the unfolding of a tale that it’s only wages and salaries that have mattered. It goes much deeper than this. We have failed to look carefully at the many and varied tasks that these persons perform as a part of their daily routine. This is a job that many detractors and others know very little about.
It is high time that the administration looks deeply in to what is required of these persons on a daily basis. Among their duties is the care of the children in the schools. They are the front line staff who must interface with irate parents, attend to the biological emergencies of the younger children, and pay attention and to serve on a timely basis any structural defects of the building in order to prevent disaster. When children are taken ill or are injured on the premises it is they who invariably have to take the children for medical attention. Teachers do not quite like being involved in such tasks.
The treatment meted out to sweeper/cleaners dates back to colonial times when the management of schools was much different. Teachers then took on quite a lot of extracurricular activities. Theirs was an exhausting task. Nowadays the times have changed and our teachers do not perform many of those tasks.
These are left to the sweeper/cleaners. Our caring government should explore the possibility of having this category of staff placed on the fixed establishment where their superannuation benefits would be assured. The tasks performed are no longer menial and have expanded over the years. I am thankful that the government has relooked their situation and their lot as recently announced.
Cyril Walker

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