Rough start

Jamaica’s new school year began with sharply different accounts of how prepared schools were. The Education Ministry described the reopening as generally smooth, while principals in parts of the island reported difficult conditions.

The ministry said preliminary data from all seven education regions showed that only three of approximately 1,000 schools had not opened on Monday. That put the reported opening rate at about 99.7 percent.

But Jamaica Observer journalists received first-hand reports from western Jamaica, the area that suffered the worst impact from Hurricane Melissa last October. Principals there pointed to incomplete repairs and other obstacles as students returned.

Some classes were being held in tents that trap heat and become extremely hot under the tropical sun. The ministry also identified late furniture deliveries as one of the most frequently reported challenges on the first day of the academic year.

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Based on preliminary data received from all seven educational regions covering approximately 1,000 schools, only three schools did not open today, meaning that approximately 99.7 per cent of the schools captured in the data were able to open on the first day of the new school year.