And like many other classrooms across the country, the Caye Caulkers students are forced to learn under the sweltering heat. The PM agreed that cement and zinc - materials most schools are built from - exasperate the problem. However, he added that a complete overhaul of classrooms is a huge undertaking.
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"That's a massive problem. As I've said earlier, many people don't know but I grew up for a few years in a thatch house with my mother and it was made out of pimento and also sascab and straw, we had a cement floor and it was always cool. The Mayas knew what materials to use to be able to keep us cool. Cement holds on to heat, zinc translates heat, and we have to find a way now to be able to try to move towards that. Probably put more insolation into roofs but even the types of windows that we have. If you look in the rural areas in Mexico and in Guatemala, they don't have louvers, they have these huge rooms, they opened up the entire side of the room so that air can flow in easier. That's what we have to do. So how these are, something similar to this, but we have to do to the other side so that the air can circulate so there are certain things that we need to do, I wish I could tell you we have the money to do everything but we have to start to think, we need to adapt."
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