SCHOOLS should reopen today but will be closely monitored by regional officers of the Ministry of Education, following yesterday’s closure due to severe flooding, and sustained heavy rainfall over 24 hours in some areas.

Speaking at a press conference at Jamaica House, where Acting Prime Minister Dr Horace Chang gave an update on the damage across the island, Minister of Education Senator Ruel Reid indicated that “the likely directive we are going to be giving is that the should reopen tomorrow”.Yesterday, the ministry advised that all educational institutions in flood-prone areas across the island should remain closed and noted that the Overseas Examination Commission would issue its own advisory on the procedures to be implemented for those students who were due to sit the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination.Students sitting industrial technology, textiles and clothing, agriculture, mechanical engineering, French, computer science, geography, entrepreneurship and electrical and electronic technology today were advised to go the nearest examination centre if they can’t make it to their original centre.Senator Reid said yesterday that by all accounts most students had sat their exams yesterday. As for those who missed the tests, he instructed that reports should be made directly to the schools, which will then lodge the reports to the Caribbean Examinations Council for a decision.“There are usually two remedies; either we do a supplementary paper, depending on how many students across the island have been affected, and the other alternative would be to use internal grades and forecast grades as the final determination of their scores,” he explained.