Thursday, November 22, 2007

HOW MANY?

The Express says 104 fell ill with food poisoning at Cap de Ville (103 students and 1 teacher), while the Newsday says it's 108 students (no mention of a teacher), and the Guardian says it's 103 students and a teacher. Who is right?

Here's the Newsday's take. "Education Ministry officials were reportedly unaware of the situation while the officer for the School Nutrition Programme in the Point Fortin district had already left for the day. Repeated attempts to get comments from new Education Minister Esther Le Gendre proved futile. It was not known if the food was sent to the State Laboratory for testing to ascertain what caused the students to fall ill."

But Carolyn Kissoon and Kimoy Leon Sing of the Express got details from a press release from the Education Ministry. They write.. "Apart from the pie, samples of saffron rice and red beans, which all formed part of the children's lunch... will be tested...It added that public health authorities also took samples of the school's water supply...The samples are to be analysed by CARIRI and the results "are expected within a few days."
Newsday what time did you go to print?