Makeshift classrooms to be erected at Ocho Rios Primary School

Makeshift classrooms are being erected at the Ocho Rios Primary School in St Ann, to ensure that more than 1,100 students can return to a single-shift school when the 2026-2027 academic year begins in September.

Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Senator Marlon Morgan, said the temporary facilities are being provided to ensure that the school can maintain its single-shift arrangement.

The Ocho Rios Primary School officially transitioned off the shift system to a single-shift, traditional all-day schedule in September 2024.

“We are truly just dotting the I’s and crossing T’s because this school is one of those that… will be ready, having regard to the makeshift classrooms that will be put in place,” Morgan stated.

He was speaking on Monday during a tour of schools across St Ann to assess the progress of restoration and reconstruction works following the damage caused by Hurricane Melissa last year.

Fire severely damaged Ocho Rios Primary School in St Ann on June 26.

The fire gutted a major classroom block, a library, a physical education room, and four grade-two classrooms.

“A contractor will be in place in a matter of days and we trust that we will come away as well with a fit-for-purpose and resilient structure that the learners and stakeholders there at Ocho Rios Primary School can use and enjoy the teaching and learning experience in as optimal a condition as possible,” Morgan explained.

He added that the damage caused by Hurricane Melissa has reinforced the need for Jamaica to adopt more resilient and climate-smart approaches to construction, particularly in the education sector.

The stop at Ocho Rios Primary capped a tour that took the Parliamentary Secretary and his team through six institutions across the “Garden Parish”.

The other schools included Fern Court High School, Iron's Mountain Primary School, the Edgehill School of Special Education, Priory Primary School and the St Ann's Bay Infant School.

Morgan noted that the visits showed that schools across the parish are at different stages of restoration, with some nearing completion and others requiring additional work before they can return fully to normal operation.

“The Ministry continues to work… to hold our contractors to account, and impress upon them the importance of burning the midnight oil and working with alacrity, expediting where possible to deliver our schools as best they can, so that the teaching and learning environment can be as accommodating as possible,” Morgan stated.

- JIS News

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