Investigations have revealed that the collapsed roof of the Althea Scattliffe Primary School was caused by a natural process called spalling, which mounted several pieces of concrete on the inner roof of the building, leading to its eventual breakdown.
This was revealed by Education Minister Dr. Natalio Wheatley, who made the disclosure on Thursday November 4 in the House of Assembly.
He said this information was relayed to him by a structural engineer who assessed the area of the school where the roof had collapsed.
“Spalling is where you get water that gets into the concrete, perhaps through the roof that probably needs to be resealed, and the steel inside the concrete starts to expand. And when that steel expands, the concrete cracks and it pushes off the concrete, and the concrete would therefore fall. And that was happening on the roof of Althea Scattliffe and pieces of concrete were falling,” he stated.
“I’m told this process can start as early as 15 years into the construction of a building. So possibly, for the past 25 years, pieces of concrete have been falling on the roof of the Althea Scattliffe Primary School. It is not something that just started,” the minister added.
Dr. Wheatley criticised the pioneer behind the creation of the drop ceiling at the school, stating that it was not a good decision even back then.
He said, “Somewhere along the line, way before I was the Minister of Education, someone made a decision, I am not sure who, to put a drop ceiling beneath the crumbling roof. And they put the drop ceiling there to stop the concrete from falling to the floor. It was not a good decision, I’ll put it that way. So for years this concrete would have been falling on the ceiling and when it got heavy enough on the drop ceiling, the drop ceiling collapsed.”
The education minister said it was God’s blessing that the roof opted to collapse on the two days of the week that children were not permitted to be at school, stating “God has been good to us. That could have been a real tragedy.”
He said the thought of children being present in that classroom during the incident brought tears to his eyes and believes the sparing of such an incident is symbolic.