Jamaica’s smallest school

Nestled high in the Blue Mountains, Claverty Cottage Primary is home to Jamaica's smallest student body in the public school system, with just five children on its roster.

Four boys and one girl – one student each in grades one, two, and three, and two in grade six – occupy a single building at the Portland-based school, with classrooms divided only by whiteboards.

They are served by three teachers, one of whom is their provisional principal, and a clerical support staff, which includes three watchmen, a cook, and a cleaner.

And when the current students leave, there is little prospect of replenishing the numbers in the “dead” community, the teachers told The Sunday Gleaner last week. There is also no hope of outsiders either moving in or sending their children to the rural district for schooling.

Claverty Cottage is a remote settlement located about five miles from the peak of the Blue Mountains, with the nearest town, Buff Bay, a daunting 30 miles away.

The journey to the community is difficult, taking the Sunday Gleaner team nearly two hours to navigate an uphill, winding road that only the most daring motorcyclists and SUV drivers can manage.

This treacherous road, prone to mudslides and fallen boulders, becomes especially perilous when it rains – a frequent occurrence in Claverty Cottage. Residents say that police patrols in the area are rare and cause alarm, highlighting the community's isolation and its virtually crime-free environment, typical of a fading coffee-farming village.

“I don't know what will happen [next September]. I thought the school would have been closed from 2022,” said Julane King-Walker, the provisional principal who has taught at Claverty Cottage Primary for 18 years. “The community is dead. I don't want to say it's dying because it is beyond dying!

'NOBODY WANTS TO COME BACK'

“There has always been a more ageing population here, and after grade six, when the students leave, nobody comes back,” noted King-Walker, explaining how since 2006, the school population plunged from an enrolment of 54.

“Additionally, because the road network, even from then, it is not commutable. People can't traverse back and forth. They have to board out with a family member or at somebody else's house [after leaving Claverty Cottage Primary]. After spending five to seven years out there at high school, nobody wants to come back here. So there is no change.”

Claverty Cottage Primary can accommodate 70 students, and up to last year, there were nine students enrolled, the education ministry told The Sunday Gleaner. It explained that Claverty Cottage and similar schools with very low enrolment remain open to allow access, equity, inclusivity, and the overall community.

“The ministry's mantra – 'Every Child Can Learn, Every Child Must Learn' – can only be fulfilled if we provide access to every child. Access and equity are pillars of investment in our human capital,” the ministry said in its response to Sunday Gleaner queries last week. “In Jamaica, there are some rural districts where the population is not significantly high, and the GOJ (Government of Jamaica) has a responsibility to ensure that school-age children can access public education institutions.

“Where schools remain in operation, it is as a result of the need for the institution in the particular community, which is considered an investment and our fulfilment of the children's inalienable right to an education,” it added.

While Claverty Cottage Primary fulfils a need, it comes with some unique nuances, explained King-Walker, noting that there are only two newborn babies in the village. There is also no basic school there. The nearest one is miles away on rough terrain making transportation unaffordable for hard-pressed parents.

NEAREST ALTERNATIVE PRIMARY SCHOOL

The nearest alternative primary school, Skibo Primary, is at least an hour away due to the rough terrain – longer for others closer to the mountain's summit. King-Walker said that getting there would mean the children would have to wake up very early, face the fatigue and safety risks of the foggy roadway leading down to Skibo, struggle through the day at school, and then repeat the journey back up to their homes.

Such a routine would be exhausting, especially in a community with only a handful of motor vehicles that transport residents down the mountain at specific times each day as there is no public transportation in Claverty Cottage.

It is for such reasons that over the years, the students who enter Claverty Cottage Primary have never attended basic school. It is also why those who leave never return.

It is simply too costly, and so the formal preparative years are lost on some students, especially those whose parents are not able to help their children academically. Occasionally, siblings are pulled from Claverty Cottage Primary whenever one graduates as it is too costly to maintain families due to the distance. So parents usually seek work elsewhere, taking the younger of their children with them.

There are also maintenance cons associated with keeping the school open, explained the principal. The school has leaks on three sections of its roof; and even with cash in hand, it is difficult to get tradesmen to make the trek to the community or to get those in the area to leave their beloved coffee farms to make repairs at the school.

“If you even do get somebody from outside, it will cost you to either go for them or they charge you for their transportation costs, which you know will be expensive. So we have three leaks, and we have the material to get the job done, but we just can't get anybody to do it,” she said.

Despite these challenges, the teachers remain dedicated. King-Walker and teacher Trudy-Ann Miller live in Buff Bay and commute to Claverty Cottage every week, staying in a cottage on the school grounds during the workweek then leaving for the trek back down the mountains on Fridays. Indeed, it takes a toll on their personal lives, explained the principal, the mother of two children.

Pre-trained teacher Candace Crisp, however, lives in the community. She is probably the only past student who has left the community for high school and has returned to work. For her, the teaching opportunity allows her to remain close to home.

“I am going to HEART right now as well, and when this opportunity came up, I couldn't let it pass. This is also my past school, so I wanted to come back here and help out,” she told The Sunday Gleaner, noting that she travels to Buff Bay as a pillion on a motorcycle five times a week. “The bike has never fallen with me before but every time before I go on the bike, I always pray. Sometimes when I'm on the bike and I hold on to the rider, I say, 'God do, don't make me drop off'.”

Crisp explained that there are an estimated 250 residents living in the community, which houses one church. Most of the population is elderly, and so there has been a decline in community gatherings in recent times. No garbage collection trucks venture into the area so residents burn their waste; and water service is intermittent, so the nearby 'John Spring' is their refuge, filling up buckets of water when the pressure in the pipe is low.

Although there is a postal agency in the community, its usage has declined, she continued, adding that in Claverty Cottage there are no hang-out spots as “the population is ageing and so no young people are here.

“Everything is dead. I can stay [elsewhere] with my aunt, but it is rough there. So I might as well stay with my parents here,” she said.

For 10-year-old Senita Stewart, Claverty Cottage Primary's only girl, the small school offers a unique kind of attention.

“I like that I'm the only girl. All the girl teachers favour me,” she said last Friday with a wry smile.

corey.robinson@gleanerjm.com