ROADBLOCK TO EDUCATION - Maldon High loses hundreds of students amid road crisis

WESTERN BUREAU:

Almost a year after Hurricane Melissa hit western Jamaica, a major road collapse in Spring Mount, St James, has resulted in Maldon High School seeing more than 300 students drop off its roll.

“It has impacted [us], and not positively at all,” Maldon High Principal Janet Manning told The Gleaner last week. “The breakaway is at a point on the original route where we have a lot of students. They would have to come through that corridor to come to us here, and since last October, those students beyond the breakaway going into Montego Bay are severely affected.”

Manning said the school’s population has dropped significantly since the road collapse.

“Before the hurricane, we were tilting over 800. Now, we are just under 500,” she said.

The Spring Mount corridor was badly damaged by rushing floodwaters during the passage of the Category 5 hurricane, with a section of the roadway reduced to a narrow strip of land and a precipitous 30-foot drop.

The National Works Agency (NWA) has said permanent reconstruction will likely involve rebuilding the road along its original alignment. At a late-August meeting, NWA Manager of Communication and Customer Services Stephen Shaw said bore-hole and soil testing must first be completed because of concerns about the underlying ground conditions and springs. No start date has been announced for the works.

In the meantime, students who previously travelled directly from communities such as Tucker, John’s Hall, St John’s, and Springmount to Maldon High have to now take longer and more expensive routes to the school in St James Southern. They have to travel into Montego Bay before taking other transportation through communities such as Granville, Retirement, Kempshot, Hopeton, Plum, Hampton, and Springfield before reaching Summer Hill, where Maldon High is located.

Some from Montego Bay are able to take the school bus.

Manning said the additional cost is proving prohibitive for some families.

“Now they find themselves in a position where they have to pay $200 from there into Montego Bay, and depending on the route, they might have to pay $300 or $400 to come,” she said. “You’re talking about $600 one way, and if $600 one way, that’s $1,200 for a day.”

The transportation burden, she said, has affected both attendance and punctuality.

Some parents have also sought to transfer their children to other schools because they can no longer afford the increased transportation costs, which surged further over the holidays with a fare hike granted by the authorities.

“A few of them have asked to be allowed to go to other places. They want to transfer because their parents can’t afford it,” the principal said.

The disruption has also taken a toll on teachers.

“The teachers have been troopers from last year, right after the hurricane, right up to now,” Manning said. “They came out, and they tried – those who drive and those who still take public transportation – but they have been doing so much to get here and to get here on time.”

But one teacher eventually left.

“I lost a teacher – a very, very good teacher,” Manning said with a heavy sigh. “She said, ‘Miss, it’s difficult, and I can’t continue’.”

Recruitment has also been challenging, with some prospective teachers declining to turn up for interviews after learning of the route to the school, preferring to find employment in the city.

Hurricane Melissa also damaged several sections of the school plant.

“We lost the roofs for two classrooms, we lost the roof for our tuck shop, we lost our farm, we lost the roof for our poultry unit, and we lost the roof for the teachers’ flats,” she said.

The school’s perimeter wall also remains down, despite reports to the authorities.

“We have made several reports about it, and the danger that having an open space like that can cause injury to the children,” Manning told The Gleaner. “All I am hearing is that it has been approved for the contractor to come and do the work, but nothing has been done.”

Staff members have also had to undertake repairs to help get the school ready for the new academic year.

“Our electrical teacher has gone out and done quite a bit of electrical work, and the woodwork and metalwork teachers repaired desks. They did so much work to get us started in September,” Manning said.

The principal said that the hurricane severely damaged the school’s electrical wiring, Internet service, and security cameras.

The transportation difficulties have also raised concerns about emergency response.

“The police station is on the other side of the breakaway. If I call for help for any reason, those members (cops) will have to go around,” Manning said of the Spring Mount Police Station. “The substation up the road doesn’t have a vehicle. We are very, very vulnerable.”

Despite the challenges, Manning said the school remains operational.

“School is still keeping, children are still learning. We are still participating in programmes, including extra-curricular activities such as football, among other things. We are still operating very much as a school.”

Her immediate appeal is for additional school buses.

“We are asking if we could have two more school buses. The real issue is getting them [students] here,” she said.

However, Manning said the road remained central to restoring the school’s student population.

“We need the road. It would be the solution in helping to get back our students. It’s an urgent matter. We don’t want to find ourselves another September with the situation that we have now.”

albert.ferguson@gleanerjm.com