St. Kitts and Nevis Education Ministry distributes fire extinguishers to schools in St. Kitts

Displaying its continuous commitment to invest in school safety across St. Kitts, the Education Ministry of St. Kitts and Nevis is currently distributing fire extinguishers to the institutions. The initiative is part of the Model Safe School Programme (MSSP), financially backed by the Caribbean Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA). It is a regional inter-governmental agency for disaster management in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) based in Barbados. 

The Model Safe School Programme (MSSP) aims to assist the participating states with implementing processes that facilitate a safer and greener educational environment.

During one of the fire extinguisher handover ceremonies at a school, Tricia Esdaille, a focal point for MSSP, stressed the importance of having safe schools in St. Kitts.

Work underway with nine pilot schools

“With regards to the Ministry of Education and its Safe School Programme, we continue to work within our schools in various ways each academic year. This year, as we look to build our programme, we continue to work with the nine pilot schools, and they are the recipients of fire extinguishers,” she said.

“The receipt of the fire extinguishers is the first phase. Over the course of this academic year, we look to have training within all our schools that receive fire extinguishers on how to use them effectively.”

Esdaille, who is the ministry’s senior assistant secretary, said the education ministry was looking ahead to the next phase of the project which will include: building more community connections; developing school safety plans for all schools; a federal approach to school safety; school safety drills and capacity building for staff and students so that they can respond when and if there is any incident in schools. 

Some of the schools that were provided with the fire extinguishers in the past few days are: Cotton Thomas Comprehensive School, Washington Archibald High School, Tucker Clarke Primary School, Cayon High School and Saddlers Primary School. 

Principals of the recipient schools thanked the government for the safety tools. They acknowledged the importance of the initiative in ensuring safety of both the students and staff members. They promised that the extinguishers will be mounted safely and used properly if the need arose. 

St. Kitts and Nevis’s Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Geoffrey Hanley was seen handing over the equipment to the authorities of Cotton Thomas Comprehensive School at Estridge. 

St. Kitts and Nevis’s National Safe School Policy

The government of St. Kitts and Nevis has taken various steps to achieve robust emergency preparedness in schools. In February 2024, officials from the ministry attended an event where the country’s National Safe School Policy was launched. 

Francil Morris, St. Kitts and Nevis’s chief education officer said the island-nation’s school administrators and teachers, who play a critical role in shaping young minds, deserve a workplace where they can concentrate on their responsibilities without worrying about their safety. 

Minister Hanley said, “A safe and secure environment is a prerequisite for effective teaching and learning. The goal of the policy [National Safe School Policy] is to promote the wellbeing and academic success of students by mitigating issues of safety and security and providing resources and support for those who need it.”