OCHO RIOS, St Ann – The Ministry of Education says all schools, including the 350 damaged by Hurricane Dean on August 19, will be ready for the start of the new school year on September 10.

Maxine Henry-Wilson, the education minister, at yesterday’s final day of the three-day Jamaica Teachers’ Association conference here, said nine teams from her ministry have been assessing the hurricane damage to schools across the island.

“We are working to ensure that all schools are operational by September 10, no later than that date,” the minister told the teachers.

The minister was, however, unable to give the cost of the repairs, saying only “very preliminary” estimates were available.

Schools were scheduled to reopen on September 3 for the start of the Christmas term, but were rescheduled after the passage of Dean, which passed just south of Jamaica, but left a trail of damage, mainly by its heavy winds. The new date was also set to accommodate the general elections on September 3, which were pushed back a week from August 27 because of the hurricane. A number of public schools will be used as polling stations.

Yesterday, Minister Henry-Wilson said that among the worst affected schools 34 were in St Elizabeth, 53 in Manchester, 58 in Clarendon and 37 in St Catherine.

She said emergency procurement procedures had already been approved by Cabinet to enable speedy repairs of the schools. Additionally, the minister said she intended to seek approval from the National Contracts Committee for additions to be made to contracts already in place to repair affected schools, where the work exceeded that stipulated in the contract.

However, work valued above $4 million would have to go through the emergency procurement process, she said.

Henry-Wilson said she would also be seeking permission to allow schools to get their own contractors for jobs under $1 million, in order to reduce the repair time and get the job done for the schools to reopen by September 10. In such cases, she said, Ministry of Education personnel would work with the schools in order to ensure that appropriate standards are maintained.

Delegates at the conference welcomed the announcements by the minister and pledged support to have the schools ready by the specified time.