Learning triumphs over disaster

WESTERN BUREAU:

When Hurricane Melissa ripped the roof off Dumfries Primary and left children wandering aimlessly across Lima, St James, veteran teacher Elaine Morgan refused to let the storm steal their future. With schools shuttered, devices drowned, and homes blown open to the sky, she spotted children drifting through the streets – bored, anxious and already losing ground.

Determined to help, she converted a neighbour’s empty beauty salon into a pop-up classroom.

“I knew the learning loss would be terrible,” said Morgan a primary-school teacher with 18 years of experience.

“After a regular holiday we spend weeks revisiting content. After a hurricane? They would fall far behind.”

The veteran education, who is on leave from Barracks Road Primary in the parish, had no desks, no chalkboard, no government mandate – just determination.

Across the road sat a small salon owned by community member Mauvett Lawrence. Morgan asked to borrow the yard. Lawrence did one better.

“She said, ‘Use inside. I’m not busy now,’” Morgan recalled. “Just like that, she handed me the space.”

Mirrors, stools and the lingering scent of hair spray became the backdrop for an improvised schoolhouse. Within days, up to 20 children aged five to 12 were squeezing into the salon each morning – some on overturned buckets, some on salon chairs – hungry for normality.

Morgan brought what little teaching materials she had, and for three days a week, from 8:30 a.m. to noon, the salon pulsed with phonics, handwriting drills, mathematics, reading comprehension and story writing. When the space grew too tight, she rotated groups – little ones inside, older ones outside.

“I brought books, notebooks and pencils,” she said. “And I borrowed some textbooks from my school. We set up a little whiteboard and rearranged the space so it looked like a classroom,” she added.

The teaching activities was a welcome return to classes for students who have left behind since the passage of Hurricane Melissa yesterday. Education Minister Morris Dixon last week reported that 845 schools are now operational with others due to resume operations soon.

“That’s really really a great thing given what has happened in the west,” she said.

There are more than 1,000 public educational institutions serving 700,000 students and over 25,000 teachers across Jamaica. The government’s policy has been to prioritise the return of exam cohorts – students preparing for Caribbean Examinations Council assessments at the secondary level.

Education Minister Morris Dixon reported that 24 of the 25 high schools in Westmoreland, Hanover and St James are now open for grades 11 to 13.

The ministry expects all students to be back in physical classrooms within the next two weeks, though schools will operate on a rotational or shift basis while repairs continue.

Exam students top priority

“We’re looking closely at the areas of each school that are usable and making adjustments,” Dixon explained. “Not everyone will be in every day for now, but reopening for exam students has been our top priority.”

Back in Lima, the focus over the past two weeks was ensuring that no child was left behind. Lawrence watched her salon morph into a place of hope. Her two grandchildren, ages five and 10, joined the classes.

“They had nothing to do because of the storm, no internet, no school,” Lawrence said.

“Sometimes I’m too busy to sit with them. Miss Morgan took it upon herself to help, and it worked. The 10-year-old, he couldn’t do long division before, and now he’s doing much better,” she said.

For grandparents like Murglen Ellis, whose roof was peeled away by the hurricane, Morgan’s lessons became a lifeline.

“On the first day, Devonae brought home her book and I was taken aback, she had started division. She had never done that at school yet, but because of Mrs. Morgan’s magical way of teaching, she grasped it and was able to explain it to me,” the appreciative grandmother said.

Ellis, who lost her roof and belongings during the hurricane, said the classes brought structure, comfort and motivation to her family.

Doing all of this for free

“She is enthused to go back every day,” Ellis said of her granddaughter.

“And to think of it, Mrs Morgan is doing all of this for free, even providing the children with books and pencils. She could be home resting, but she chose to do this in a disaster. She deserves to be highlighted and more,” Ellis said.

But academics were only half the battle.

“Oh yes, some talked about the storm,” Morgan said. “They were scared. I reassured them… told them we will overcome this together.”

Dumfries Primary, where some of the salon students were enrolled, lost the entire upper-school roof during Hurricane Melissa. Morgan joined clean-up efforts last Monday, helping teachers and residents clear debris. While upper-school students are expected to return to classes soon, younger students still have no suitable classrooms.

“I’ve seen the devastation across St Elizabeth and here in St James,” she said. “Parents don’t know where to start. Books gone, roofs gone. This will set us back—I don’t know for how long.”

Meanwhile, Dixon said the ministry has been assessing usable sections of damaged school compounds, implementing a rotational or shift system in the interim.

“Everybody won’t be in every day, but we are using the parts of the schools that we can use,” he explained. “Our focus has been on bringing in those students who have external exams, and that has been the priority.”

The minister also announced that Cabinet has approved funding to begin repairs on the most severely affected institutions.

“We’re moving as quickly as we can,” he said, noting that the Ministry and the National Education Trust have teams already on the ground.

For Morgan, relief has come in the form of seeing her salon-housed students return to school. A devout member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, she described her efforts over the past few weeks as community service.

“I’m into community work,” she said. “This was my way of helping.”

Now that the salon is reopening for business and schools are slowly stirring back to life, her impact continues to resonate in the children who learned more than long division – they learned resilience.

Lawrence put it best:

“I gave her the space, yes. But she gave the children so much more,” he said.