School heads cautioned against dengue breeding sites

by Ananda KANNANGARA

The Education Ministry last week cautioned heads of all schools in the country to be more vigilant on possible dengue breeding sites that could have developed in school premises, especially after the two-week New Year school vacation which ended on April 23.

Education Minister Bandula Gunawardane told the Sunday Observer that it was not reported that there were no reports of clearing campaigns being carried out by children in their school premises during the two-week school vacation. Therefore, it has become necessary for all children to take part in regular clearing campaigns from now to destroy mosquito breeding grounds.

He said the Ministry has already directed school authorities to clean school premises under the coordination of principals and teachers.

According to a senior Health Department official, teams of entomologists have been deployed to conduct surveys in schools to ensure that they are free of dengue mosquito breeding grounds. The entomologists were appointed by the Health Ministry on the directive of Minister Maithripala Sirisena recently.

Health Ministry statistics reveal that over 9,700 dengue patients have been reported from all parts of the country during the first three months of this year along with 45 deaths.

Minister Gunawardane further said that his Ministry's ongoing `Cleaning School Environments' program will be streamlined and strengthened to fulfil the Government's endeavour of creating a healthy society.

The Minister thanked schoolchildren for carrying out cleaning school compound programs regularly and said such programs should be continued along side educational activities.

Minister Gunawardane said the Government spends a colossal sum of money every year to improve the health condition of over 4.2 million schoolchildren.

"We have decided to establish dental clinics and spectacle distribution programs even in remote schools so that children will not have to go to other schools for this purpose," he said.

When contacted by the Sunday Observer principals and teachers of several schools in Colombo including Royal, Ananda, Visakha, Nalanda, DS and Mahanama and several schools in Kandy, Galle and Ratnapura, said most of their students are regularly engaged in school compound cleaning programs to destroy mosquito breeding grounds.