Last lap

Despite battling termite infestation and space challenges, some Clarendon schools are pushing through to have a smooth start to the 2022-2023 academic year, with many telling The Gleaner that they are almost there with preparation.

O’Neil Lewin, acting principal of Vere Technical High School, said they are now wrapping preparation work by repainting bathrooms and repairing corridors, roofs, desks, and chairs ahead of a weeklong orientation exercise for new students, starting next Monday, before teaching begins on September 5.

However, the biggest challenge at the school is classroom space as the school is bursting at the seams.

“I am actually doing proposals to two private-sector companies, asking for assistance in providing for us four classroom blocks, so pretty much, we have actually been doing as much as we can,” said Lewin.

He told The Gleaner that the challenge is mainly around finding adequate space for grade seven classes, with each having more than 40 students in relatively small rooms.

“We have been using the auditorium since last year, and that will continue this year, where we will have to host between four and five classes [there], and that is a space which is used generally for meetings, and all of that,” Lewin said, noting that whenever there is a meeting, the students end up roaming the compound or having classes under a tree because of the displacement.

In Lionel Town, Watsonton Primary School Principal Marsha Williams-Hines said her institution is 70 per cent ready. Clean-up activities are under way and the school is in the process of completing its orientation programme.

“We have done our pest-control activities, and we have our deployment ready,” said Williams-Hines, who noted that her only concern was a staircase in disrepair on the grade four block.

“We are awaiting attention to this matter from the Ministry of Education, which they are in the process of sorting out for the start of the school year,” she pointed out.

NEED FOR MORE CLASSROOMS

While the school is not overpopulated, Williams-Hines said there is the need for more classrooms as when classes are resumed, two lower grades will be sharing rooms.

May Pen Primary headmaster Major Paul Scott is pleased with the preparations so far, noting that the school is in a 90 per cent state of readiness.

“As leader of this institution, certainly, I put the necessary plans in place, along with my team, within the appropriate time frame so that we can get ready for the reopening of school in September,” he told The Gleaner.

However, there are things beyond their control, he said, noting that within the missing 10 per cent are concerns about needed furniture and kitchen appliances.

Scott said that while students were out of the physical space during the pandemic, termites made a meal of desks and chairs placed in storage for two years. He is hoping that when school is resumed and the students return to the two-to-a-desk arrangement, there will be adequate furniture.

“So we are woefully short on desks and chairs for our students. We have an adequate supply of desks and chairs for our staff [and] adequate classrooms,” he said.

The principal said minor work, including electrical repairs and preparing the schoolyard, is also outstanding and would be addressed in time for the reopening.

Michael Jackson, principal of Green Park Primary, said his Sandy Bay-based school is also 90 per cent ready for the new school year.

On Wednesday, painting was being undertaken, and Jackson noted that cleaners would be preparing the classrooms next week.

Interviews are also being conducted to find teachers for temporary appointments as others go off on vacation and study leave.

LIBRARY NEEDED

The library, which was also being used as an isolation room, is also being readied as there is a dire need for a reading-intervention programme, Jackson revealed.

“The library is really the literacy centre. It was being used as the isolation room, so we would have made contact with Food For The Poor (FFTP) for an isolation room. We have not gotten that yet; however, we will use a small classroom for that because it is important that we get the reading-intervention programme up because [as a result of] COVID-19, our students’ reading level is way below where they should be,” he told The Gleaner.

Jackson is also making a call for an infant department to be added to the school to allow the school to have direct influence over the readiness of students making the transition from basic to primary schools.

He said that the previous principal had applied to FFTP to build the early infant department but the charity requested a “no objection” letter from the Ministry of Education.

“We didn’t get that letter, so we have to process all over again. I don’t know if we are at the head of the line or the back of the line. Hopefully, [we are] still at the front or any other organisation [will help] as soon as possible,” he said.

cecelia.livingston@gleanerjm.com