Report substandard post-Melissa repair work at schools, says education minister

WESTERN BUREAU:

Education Minister Dr Dana Morris Dixon is urging teachers who observe substandard work, or little to no work at all, being done at their schools, which are undergoing repairs following Hurricane Melissa, to report it at once to the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth, and Information.

Addressing Wednesday’s final day of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association’s (JTA) 62nd annual conference at the Ocean Coral Springs Resort in Trelawny, Morris Dixon pointed out that $25 billion has been allocated to repair schools damaged during the passage of the Category 5 hurricane on October 28 last year, and that the money must be fully accounted for.

“Sometimes when I go to a site and everybody knows that I’m coming, all the workmen are there working really hard. But when I go unannounced, I often don’t see them so hard at work. That’s one area where, obviously, more work is needed, because we have a lot of schools that are delayed in terms of reconstruction; and $25-billion worth of contracts have gone out to contractors, which is a lot of money that’s been allocated, and so we need to see the work happening,” said Morris Dixon.

“We are out there monitoring and seeing some of the work, but it has not gone as well as we want. We are looking at the quality of the work also, but this is something that I need your help with. If you see substandard work, report it in, and whenever it is going too slow, report it in,” Morris Dixon added.

The $25-billion sum is more than the $18 billion previously announced in June for school repairs following Hurricane Melissa’s destructive impact, which resulted in some 688 schools across Jamaica suffering varying degrees of damage. Of those schools, 311 institutions have been categorised as Priority 1, having suffered severe damage, under the Hurricane Melissa School Infrastructure Recovery Programme.

Of the 311 Priority 1 schools, 102 are situated within the education ministry’s Region Four, which covers St James, Hanover, and Westmoreland.

SHORTAGE OF BUILDING INSPECTORS

Additionally, the education ministry previously reported that up to July 20, $3.86 billion had been spent under the recovery programme, which will run until 2030. However, the National Education Trust (NET) observed earlier this month that there is a shortage of on-site building inspectors to oversee the post-Melissa repair work at schools, with 15 inspectors currently being sought, although a minimum of 40 would be adequate.

Morris Dixon also told the conference yesterday that $100 million is being set aside to conduct termite treatment at several schools across the country. Last August, before Hurricane Melissa’s arrival on October 28, it was announced that $628 million had been allocated to address infrastructural issues, including termite infestation, at 202 schools across Jamaica.

“Termites are a problem, and I have seen it in many regions, but I think the one where I’ve seen it the most is mainly Region Seven. It seems worse there, but it’s across the board where we have termite issues, and so we have $100 million allocated for termite treatment, and in this budget year, 71 schools will be receiving significant termite treatment,” said Morris Dixon.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com