Schools in race against time - Despite damage delays, principals expect grade seven intakes to hold steady

WESTERN BUREAU:

While some administrators of Hurricane Melissa-battered schools don’t anticipate any major shifts in numbers in their customary intake of new students for the upcoming academic year, there is still concern about the slow pace of restoration.

Anniona Jones, president of the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools (JAPSS), told The Sunday Gleaner that there is still a lack of urgency to execute contracts to repairs some schools devastated by the Category 5 hurricane on October 28, 2025.

“The Government has assured this nation, and us as school administrators, that monies have been identified and that, in many instances, contractors have been identified and contracts secured, and yet we cannot get the work to progress. This should be work where we put in big floodlights and work around the clock, and this should be given the kind of national emergency attention that it duly requires,” said Jones.

“Why should a child be coming back into school September under a tent, still looking at the sky? Why are teachers, so many months later, being asked to function under less-than-ideal situations, but still churn out the same kind of output? As school administrators, we are not the project managers, and we are not the ones who are signing off on the work to be done,” she said.

In June, Education Minister Dr Dana Morris Dixon disclosed that the Government had committed $18 billion for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of schools that were damaged by Hurricane Melissa in the 2026-2027 financial year.

She said the allocation followed extensive assessments to determine the scale of destruction caused by the hurricane, which damaged more than 600 public schools and affected approximately 152,000 students and 8,000 teachers.

But Jones is disappointed that some educational institutions will not be able to finish the necessary work ahead of the start of school in September.

schools not ready

“What are the accountability structures that are in place for those project managers to get the work done as outlined in what I am hoping was the original schedule of work? The schools are not ready, and it is untenable to have us enter another academic year without most of the work, if not all of the work, where possible, being completed,” she lamented.

The education ministry said that, up to July 20, some $3.86 billion has been spent under the Hurricane Melissa School Infrastructure Recovery Programme, with $24.8 billion budgeted for contracts to be settled. The programme, which will run until 2030, covers 688 schools across seven administrative regions, jointly managed by the ministry’s National Education Trust (NET), its Infrastructure Management Unit, and its Technical Services Unit (TSU).

Of the 311 school sites considered as Priority 1 under the programme, or having suffered severe damage, 30 are categorised as having restoration work completed. Another 84 schools are categorised as near completion; 48 schools are classified as having between 51 and 79 per cent progression; 52 schools, as having between 21 and 50 per cent progression; and 30 schools are classified as having 20 per cent or less completion and requiring contractor resource audits.

Additionally, 13 school sites are categorised as being set to have work commence soon; 52 sites are to be given site possession; one requires urgent data entry; and one – the Sam Sharpe Teacher’s College in St James – needs its field status verified.

While high schools continue their own post-Melissa reconstruction work, some principals say that registration for the grade-seven cohort is progressing as normal.

Sean Graham, principal of Maggotty High School in St Elizabeth, is expecting approximately 240 students to enroll in Grade Seven for the September term.

“We lost two classroom blocks, including our agricultural science area, so it is about 16 classrooms that were affected. I have spoken to the contractor, who told me that they will be working night and day to make sure that we are ready for September,” said Graham.

“As it relates to the grade-seven cohort, 240 students were placed here through PEP (Primary Exit Profile), and normally we have some transfer processes that we go through, but I expect it to be around the same number for September,” he told The Sunday Gleaner.

Linvern Wright, principal of the Trelawny-based William Knibb Memorial High School, said that while repairs at his school have fallen behind the projected timeline, the institution will have its full incoming grade-seven cohort.

“The work has not been as quick as was promised, because it was supposed to have been completed by June. At my school, there are windows to go in and boards to be replaced, including whiteboards,” said Wright, estimating that the work was about 65 per cent complete. “We got our full complement of 205 students through PEP, and there are people who have applied for transfer. So, the cohort has not been impacted, as far as I see.”

christopeher.thomas@gleanerjm.com