Supply woes, bad roads to greet new school year out west

WESTERN BUREAU:

School administrators in western Jamaica are expressing mixed feelings about the readiness of their institutions ahead of Monday’s start of the new academic year, with availability of school supplies and poor road conditions among the main concerns.

Susan Davis, principal of Sudbury Primary School in St James, told The Gleaner yesterday that while infrastructural damage from Hurricane Beryl was minimal and will not prevent the start of school, parents are concerned about the cost of books.

“We are at least 85 per cent ready, as the little thing that Hurricane Beryl did with the trees coming down on the fences will not prevent the children from coming to school. However, the books are so expensive to get, and since Beryl, the price of things has tripled,” said Davis.

“I am concerned that the children will not have the materials needed for school because the parents are complaining. Yesterday [Thursday], I had orientation for grades four to six, and that was one of the main issues the parents brought forward, about the expense of the books. Some of them cannot get the books at all, because they say Beryl has delayed the shipment of the books.”

Poor road conditions

For Camille Davis-Williams, principal of St Paul’s Primary School in Westmoreland, the main concern is the poor condition of the roadway from Ketto to Little London, where her school is located.

“We had a meeting with our member of Parliament, Morland Wilson, two Sundays ago, and he promised there is going to be some repair work done from that end. From the Spring Garden end in Ketto, the road from that side is really bad, but from New Hope to where our school is, that is the better part of the road,” Davis-Williams told The Gleaner.

“We had received minimal damage from Hurricane Beryl, where one or two pieces of zinc from the children’s bathroom had blown off, but that was rectified quickly, so we are ready for school on Monday.”

At the Trelawny-based Muschett High School, acting Principal Morisal Walker is confident that everything is in a state of readiness for her school to welcome students on Tuesday, September 3.

“Teachers will be here on Monday doing a planning session, and school will begin for the students on Tuesday and we will be ready,” said Walker.

During the recently held Jamaica Teachers’ Association [JTA] 2024 conference, concerns were raised about whether schools that had been affected by Hurricane Beryl on July 3 would be ready for the 2024-2025 school year. At that time, Education Minister Fayval Williams said that independent quantity surveyors would be brought in to assess the damage at different schools.

St Elizabeth Technical High School, one of the 352 institutions that suffered extensive damage from the hurricane that impacted 1,009 public schools, will open for classes on September 16. Hampton School, also in St Elizabeth, will begin the school year with incomplete repairs to its infrastructure on Monday.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com