David Schembri
Smells distract music students
A student gets a whiff of the day’s rubbish before setting foot in the Johann Strauss School of Music, in Valletta. Photo: Jason Borg
In between the metronome’s monotone ticks and the odd wrong note, students at the Johann Strauss School of Music, Valletta, have to contend with a putrid smell wafting into their classroom from two skips placed directly outside.
The skips, which do not belong to the school, have been there for the past 12 years and teachers’ complaints to the Valletta council have not reaped results. While in the past, teachers had the option of leaving the windows closed, this is no longer possible due to the Education Ministry’s swine flu directives.
Moreover, teachers at the school explained, when the garbage truck came to empty the skips at around 4 p.m., the smell worsened, only this time they had the added noise, which was far from ideal for an establishment focused on teaching music.
There are graver implications to having skips outside this building.
“One time, one of the skips broke loose and started rolling down the road; thankfully it was empty, and we were there to stop it. But what if an eight-year-old pupil was passing by and was run over by a heavy skip?” a piano teacher recounted.
When contacted, Valletta mayor Alexiei Dingli said the council had plans to relocate these skips but due to the concentration of people living in the area it would not be possible to move them very far from their present spot. Otherwise people would be dumping their rubbish outside.
“While I do understand the school’s problems, moving the skips is quite problematic – after all, no one wants a skip outside their front door,” he said in a resigned voice.
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Manny Busuttil
Oct 8th 2009, 12:40
I think this skips are too convenient for the a nearby restaurant. And thats the only reason that they are in that particular area. The stench of fish make me think how sophisticated our politicians are. Right in between our only Theatre and the only Music school on the island with a nice garbage cocktail. Do they carry death fish perfume to represent Malta for the Eurovision song festival or any Political clubs we have in every town?
jvella
Oct 8th 2009, 12:06
It is not appropriate at all to put skips next to the main entrance of a school. Hundreds of students frequent the school every day and as the photo clearly shows, they have to pass very close (almost touching) to the skips in order to enter the school of music. This is a health hazard to students and teachers. Why is music still so low on our priority list? Millions of euros are being invested in new state-of-the-art schools, yet the only government school of music in Malta is left in such a shabby state!
DVella
Oct 7th 2009, 13:42
Why not outside the Council Offices??? That way they'd have first-hand experience of what they are inflicting on other people!!!
The residents should get a life and learn how to deal with their household waste properly . . . after all, there's nothing special about Valletta residents and most localities do not have a skip at the end of their road . . . !
Vincent Gauci
Oct 7th 2009, 13:03
No wonder they smell. They have been there for 12 years!
lgalea
Oct 7th 2009, 12:39
Why is there any need for skips when rubbish is collected daily?
Aren't they simply a waste of money?