Santo Domingo. – The Ministry of Education (Minerd) condemned this Sunday that the health of students and teachers, as well as the correct development of school hours, are affected by fumigations carried out around educational centers in different parts of the country.
The Ministry of Education announced that it will convene a meeting with public and private institutions that authorize or use spraying with pesticides or other chemical products, to ensure that the 2024-2025 school year does not have setbacks of this magnitude, which endanger the health of the main actors in the education system.
During the past month of February the ministries of Agriculture, Public Health, Environment and the Minerd They formed a technical committee that advanced specific initiatives to address this problem.
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Although they are now out of danger, last week it was necessary to transfer 34 students and teachers to different health centers, due to poisoning by inhalation of insecticides that were used near the Padre Fantino educational center, in La Vega and the Santa Ana Elementary School, in the Padre de Las Casas municipality, in Azua.
The first case was due to the spraying of a poultry yard near the perimeter fence of the school; the second, to the application of a herbicide on a plot of land near the school located in Padre de Las Casas.
The director of the 06 Educational Regional, in La Vega, Luz del Alba Luciano Marmolejos, indicated that this is the third time that this situation has happened and that, although the management of the educational center had reached an agreement with Mr. David de Jesús Cabrera Jiménez, that they would not fumigate during school hours, Cabrera did not comply with the agreement,” in the report that she presented to the Vice Ministry of Technical and Pedagogical Services.
The Ministry of Education expressed its deep concern about the poisonings that have occurred and considered that it is necessary to adopt more forceful measures to preserve the health and a healthy environment for students and teachers.
Earlier this year, the governing body of the education system sued two companies for spraying air zones where there are educational centers in the northeast of the country, affecting the health of students, teachers and administrative staff.
