Teachers at Anatol Rodgers High School are entering the third day of sit-ins today despite assurances Tuesday from Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald that their concerns are being addressed.

For a second consecutive day yesterday, classes at the high school were disrupted because teachers again refused to report to their classrooms until several of their health concerns are addressed.

The teachers complain of smoke inhalation from a nearby dumping site and festering mold inside the school’s building.

Bahamas Union of Teachers Union (BUT) President Belinda Wilson was back at the school Tuesday and said she had still not heard from the Ministry of Education officials.

“The teachers’ concerns have still not been addressed and we will be back in a meeting in the staff room at 8:45 a.m. [today] and at that time, we expect to hear something from the school’s principal,” Mrs. Wilson said.

Mr. Fitzgerald addressed the matter ahead of a weekly Cabinet meeting Tuesday and noted that while he does not have any immediate plans of meeting with the union, the concerns of the teachers are being addressed.

“I’m not meeting with the union,” the education minister said.

“They have made their concerns and we have addressed their concerns [Monday]. I will meet with the president of the union if she wants to meet with me – I don’t have a problem meeting with her and she knows that. But I don’t suspect or expect that this is of a matter that will require me and the president to meet on. She has raised her concerns and we are addressing them and we will do so very swiftly.”

Mr. Fitzgerald also said the government is taking swift action to address the issue of the dumping site near the school.

“We have to make contact with the people that are managing that site to find out why we have to address this matter over and over again,” he said.

“I’m going to bring the matter up at Cabinet to find out which ministry actually has responsibility for the licensing and leasing of that property so that we can find a way to ensure that this doesn’t continue to happen in the future.”