PNP: Gov’t failed to plan for school reopening - Opposition cites safety, deadline concerns as repairs lag
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The People’s National Party (PNP) has accused the Government of “building narratives” to cover up a failure to properly plan for the new school year, pointing to widespread delays in school renovations across the country as evidence of poor strategic management.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, PNP President Mark Golding said the fact that only 57 of the 313 severely damaged schools have been fully repaired is evidence that no “sensible” plan was in place to address the issue before the beginning of the new academic year.
“Why was the JDF (Jamaica Defence Force) and its engineering corps not fully integrated into the process? Why were the master builders and the engineers of Jamaica not asked, out of a sense of civic duty, to help in the call for sorting out the problem that this hurricane left behind?” he asked.
“All we hear from the Government is that there’re not enough grade-one contractors; it’s a planning failure of the Government,” Golding asserted.
The Government has pledged that more than half of the schools severely damaged by Hurricane Melissa should be completed by the end of the year. It said an additional 95 should be completed by the end of October, while an additional 34 are expected to be repaired by December.
Golding is calling on the Government to publish a dashboard showing the progress of school repairs and timelines for completion for all institutions damaged by Hurricane Melissa.
Further, he said a final full completion date where “no Jamaican child will be taught outdoors or in some unfit temporary space” must be established and shared.
But in the meantime, the PNP president said minimum standards for temporary classroom structures must be in place.
“Things like proper flooring, ventilation, shading, fans and portable cooling units where needed, and we need an inspection and reporting regime,” he said.
The sentiment was echoed by Deputy Opposition Spokesperson on Education Dr Maziki Thame, who asserted that “makeshift arrangements must never be normalised to make an administration look better than it is”.
Meanwhile, Opposition Spokesman on Education Damion Crawford criticised the Government for focusing now on only “seriously damaged” schools, which he contended is an effort to “mitigate against their failure”.
“They are not willing to consider the 681 that were damaged. Whichever number that we use, 57 completed is an absolute failure of the nation’s children and of the nation’s expectations,” he said. “This does not include, mind you, those schools that were not affected by Melissa, but still in need of repair.”
He also highlighted safety concerns with the ongoing renovation, which he said are being ignored.
“When we visited these schools, many of these schools only had a caution tape, red or yellow, based on the choice that was available, but no real way to separate the students from the construction that was happening. Indeed, during school, heavy equipment such as tractors were in operation moving to and from, and delivery trucks were seen making delivery to and from. There was also the possibility of falling zinc, screws, tools, and other realities that would come to mind as we speak about this reality,” he said.
Crawford pointed to silica dust, which can come from mixing cement, cutting, grinding, and other demolition activities, and said there was no procedure in place to ensure that students are not affected by it.
He said that based on his observations, there has been no testing for mould or asbestos in older buildings, which can be dangerous if the material is damaged.
“I also visited schools that indicated that rats and bats were found in the roofs and other places when the deconstruction started. Again, these are possible sources of high air contamination and could be dangerous to our children,” he said.
Crawford noted that shortly after Hurricane Melissa last year, the PNP urged the Government to implement a student-placement initiative, where displaced students would be placed in nearby schools while their facilities were being repaired.
But he said that suggestion was ignored.
Crawford is now recommending that the schoolday be extended to make up for learning loss caused by the hurricane.
“There were some students that were asked to return to school only two days per week for almost six months, and others were doing three days per week for almost six months. Yet, we have heard no remedial plan for those students to recover from the learning losses that would have been mandated by the Government’s plan and implementation,” he said.
The opposition spokesman on education also accused the Government of being disingenuous in sharing concerns about the cost of textbooks.
Noting that the Government has committed about $700 million to providing books to students, Crawford said the impact of this will be minuscule, and accused the Government of throwing around “large numbers”.
According to Crawford, using the 400,000 students, it indicates that is approximately $1,755 per child. Therefore, he said, the replenishment of books is, at maximum, one book per child.
He further emphasised that some schools still have not received enough furniture needed to operate their schools, and that teachers have not signed the latest wage agreement with the Government.
“All these realities have indicated to us that there has been an unfortunate failure in the Government’s duty to ensure access to adequate education,” he said.
sashana.small@gleanerjm.com