EDUCATION ministry officials say the new school year was off to “mostly a smooth start” Wednesday, despite the damage to some schools during the passage of Tropical Storm Gustav last Thursday and Friday.

The ministry said only 10 of the island’s nearly 1,000 public schools were closed Wednesday, in the wake of damage caused by Tropical Storm Gustav last week. The opening of the new school year was originally scheduled for Monday.

Chief education officer Jasper Lawrence said the affected schools remained closed due to structural damage or because they were inaccessible because of the ‘terrible’ conditions of the road network.

“The reopening went as we expected. Those schools that should have resumed today (Wednesday) did so and those few schools that are to resume on Monday will do so,” Lawrence said. The affected schools, he said, were mainly in the parishes of St Mary and Portland.

Lawrence said there was only one adverse report where parents of students of the Retirement All-Age in St Ann protested against the return of a principal who had been away on study leave for two years.

The parents contended that there was improvement in the performance of students during the period of the principal’s study leave.

The education ministry, meanwhile, said its textbook delivery was continuing, but is being hampered by damage to the road network.

“As much as the road network will allow, the providers will be delivering text books to schools,” Lawrence told the Observer. He made it clear, however, that even if there were no ‘interruptions’, the delivery would still not be completed before the final week of September into the first week of October.