SOME schools in the deep-rural areas of the country are complaining that they have been almost abandoned by the education officers mandated by the Ministry of Education to make regular visits to the schools.

Stevie Williams, principal of Auchtembeddie Primary in deep-rural Manchester, told Career & Education that his school is one of those which receive few visits from the officers.

“For me, I can’t tell you when last I have had a visit. I think that the rural schools, the very rural ones, do get less visits,” he said.

Williams believes this could be a result of difficulties in travelling to certain areas due to bad road conditions, distance, and cost.

“In times gone by, I would be tired of an education officer but now they say due to budgetary constraints they can’t do as much travelling as they would love to, so we just have to take it at that,” he said.

He said within the last two years, Auchtembeddie has had only five visits from education officers.

“They do visit, but I would want to think that they go to areas that are much closer to their locale rather than the very rural areas,” he said.

Dahlia Henry, principal of the Barking Lodge Primary school in deep-rural St Thomas, also complained that education officers rarely visited the school.

The school was recently featured in the Jamaica Observer for having seen its population dwindle to 50 students, due to students being transferred several miles away to a school with computers that have Internet connection.

She complained that without Internet connection, communication with the Ministry of Education, which uses mostly online correspondence with schools, is limited, and has to be routed through the Morant Bay Primary School which is miles away.

“It is very costly to travel to Morant Bay for letters and this oftentimes results in delays of important correspondence, especially since education officers rarely visit these rural parts,” she was quoted as saying.

Henry lamented that rural schools like hers do not get the necessary attention as officers do not want to travel to those parts because of the condition of the roads.

When contacted, acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Grace McLean said she would have to check with the regional offices to understand the problem.

“All schools are assigned to education officers and I know they are asked specifically to focus on the small, deep rural schools, but I would need to check with the regions to know what is happening,” she said.

Meanwhile, Williams questioned the actual benefit of having the education officers visit, as he believes the visits only serve a supervisory purpose as the officers do not impart “anything significant to the running and development of the school”.

“It’s basically for checks and balances. Even if they come and they pick up that something is wrong, you are going to have to remedy it, they are not going to help you remedy it,” he said.

Meanwhile, Norman Allen, principal of Four Paths Primary and Junior High in Clarendon and former principal of Bois Content All- Age School in rural St Catherine, said he sympathises with the education officers, as some of them have as many as 20 schools to supervise, so they can’t get to all the schools, all the time.

He said, however, that while at Bois Content, he got as many visits as he does now at Four Paths.

He said there are also scheduled cluster meetings with the officers, where principals can have access to the education officers.