Educators doubtful about schools’ readiness for September start
Published:Friday | September 1, 2023 | 12:05 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
DESPITE ASSURANCES from the Ministry of Education and Youth that funds are available for infrastructural work to be done in schools, some educators are questioning the physical readiness of their institutions for the start of school on September 4 due to outstanding repair and furniture-supply needs.
The Gleaner spoke, on Wednesday, with principals and teachers whose schools’ infrastructural issues go as far back as 2007, making them longstanding problems that are not likely to be resolved in time for the reopening of schools next Monday.
Okeef Saunders, a teacher at the Donald Quarrie High School in Kingston, said that his school has been crippled by the condemnation of its industrial arts building, which was damaged by Hurricane Dean in 2007.
“My school is short of furniture, and we have a big problem coming in September because from ever since Hurricane Dean, the Ministry of Education has condemned the industrial arts building. In June this year, they came here and abandoned the building, saying we must not have any more classes down there,” said Saunders.
“Our industrial arts area is our strongest area, so we have to try and let the kids get a skill and do our best with them. The ministry closed down the department, and up to now, there is no solution, and school reopens next week,” Saunders complained.
“We are a shift school, and I don’t know what is going to take place at Donald Quarrie when school reopens because there is no preparation for the school.”
Susan Davis, principal of the St James-based Sudbury Primary and Infant School, likewise pointed to much-needed repair work and furniture-supply needs at her school as a cause for concern.
“We are in need of full bandwidth, plus a renovated yard because the children cannot play freely because of how the yard is in disarray. We have been asking for a new infant department as the four pillars for that department are disintegrating, and we have outgrown it, and I have been asking for these things since I came there in 2020,” said Davis.
The concerns have arisen one week after the Jamaica Teachers’ Association’s just-concluded annual conference, where education minister Fayval Williams announced that $440 million in funds for capital spending, to include infrastructural needs, has been allocated for critical repairs and maintenance in 125 schools across Jamaica’s seven educational regions.
At that time, it was revealed to JTA delegates that the expenditure is to take place under the Ministry of Education’s critical repairs and infrastructural maintenance programme and that 16,000 pieces of furniture are to be distributed to schools by August 28.
“At the end of the day, we want our educators to be comfortable, and we want our students to be in classrooms that are well-equipped. We are not short of monies to do the work. What we need is a more accelerated process [because] it takes too long for the building officers to go out, come back, and go out again and come back,” Williams said at the time.
But one teacher attached to the Portmore, St Catherine-based Waterford High School, who spoke on condition of anonymity, is doubtful about those promises being fulfilled as her school is experiencing an urgent need for adequate furniture.
“I don’t see anything happening in my school as I don’t see any chairs or tables that we’re short on for staff in the classrooms, and I don’t see any painting of the school. When I went there yesterday [Tuesday], I only saw groundsmen cutting the trees to the entrance of the school,” the teacher commented.
“Last year, we had to wait for about two months before we got desks and chairs, and the principal still had to send a request for 100 more desks and chairs. They are not ready for school because they don’t prepare for school in the summer months so that when we get there it is fully ready.”