January jitters

The Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) is denouncing what it says is the lack of consultation from the Ministry of Education regarding the January reopening of schools, arguing that the absence of meaningful engagement could lead to confusion.

“At the end of the day, we’re going to be tripping over ourselves, and it will create a lot of inefficiencies in the system; and if we are not careful, the transition will not be as smooth as it could be,” JTA President Mark Malabver told The Gleaner yesterday.

Criticising this “broad-brush” approach, he said the plan does not adequately take into consideration the unique situation of certain schools.

While schools like Manchester High School, Munro College in St Elizabeth, and St Elizabeth Technical High School may be advanced or making progress from the damage caused by Hurricane Melissa, others have lagged behind, and it will be difficult for them to catch up with repairs in a few weeks, he said.

“It’s going to be a challenge, a major challenge to complete this in time for the start of the new year,” he said.

Malabver also pointed to concerns shared by principal of Maggotty High School in St Elizabeth, Sean Graham, in The Sunday Gleaner this past weekend, about the scale of damage to his school’s campus which, he said, makes full reopening in January impossible.

Similar concerns were echoed at Belmont Academy in Westmoreland, where principal Rayon Simpson, who expressed shock when he received instructions for full resumption in January, said roughly 80 per cent of the campus is unusable.

The school is also still being used as a shelter, and the principal said there has been no assessment findings or any indication of when repairs will begin.

Describing that lack of consultation with principals as “unfortunate”, Malabver stressed that this is untenable.

“We would have seen where a number of principals have indicated that since November, there has been no further dialogue as to the way forward, and that cannot happen. There needs to be adequate dialogue on the way forward in terms of whether or not it is possible or feasible to have full reopening of school for January, and where they are in terms of the repair process,” he said.

However, Dr Kasan Troupe, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, has pushed back against Malabver’s assertions, telling The Gleaner that “from the very beginning, the decision to reopen resided with the principals and their constituents”.

“The school leads then consulted with their stakeholders and made the best decision for operations based on their local situation. A phased approach was used and was supported by the guidance from the regional office in each region. When the school term ended, the reports from the regions showed that only 24 schools were unable to operate some form of learning engagement from their physical plant,” she added.

She said the regions are working with principals to address this issue, and that meetings will be held with the ministry’s chief education officer, who is leading the response to hurricane’s aftermath, with regional directors and principals to finalise their reopening plans for the Easter term, informed by context. The Easter term starts in two weeks.

“It is our plan that each school’s operational framework will be published prior to January 5, 2026, when the new term begins. It must be noted that the country is recovering from a major disaster that disrupted our education system, and so, a return to normalcy will take some time,” Troupe said, adding that the ministry is committed to supporting school leaders to ensure education continuity and emotional recovery.

Of the 1,010 public schools across the country, 721 were damaged by Hurricane Melissa, which tore through Jamaica on October 28. A total of 290 schools were deemed severely impacted.

While the Government has begun repairs, Malabver said progress on the ground has been slow. He attributed this to the “bureaucracy, in many respects, within the ministry and government on a whole”.

He also questioned the decision to reinstall zinc roofs on some schools.

“The reality is that zinc roofing has demonstrated the least resistance to hurricane-force winds and, in those instances, that’s not building back stronger, that’s building the same way that got us here in the first place,” he said.

Instead, he argued that the Government should explore the use of decramastic roofing, which, he said, has demonstrated the highest level of resistance to hurricane-force winds, as a viable alternative where slab roofing is not an option.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com