High schools across the Corporate Area that were given the green light by the Ministry of Education to resume face-to-face classes this January remained closed yesterday.

Continuing with the phased reopening of schools for the new academic term, the ministry released a list of 125 schools that were deemed “COVID-compliant” by the Ministry of Health and Wellness, and therefore fit to accommodate students in classrooms.

The list for Kingston and St Andrew included Camperdown High, Wolmer’s Boys’, Wolmer’s Girls’, Campion College, Charlie Smith High, Donald Quarrie High, Excelsior High, Gaynstead High, Haile Selassie High, Jamaica College, Penwood High, and The Queen’s School.

However, checks by the Jamaica Observer with 11 of the 12 revealed empty schoolyards and administrators busy in meetings most of yesterday morning, still deliberating the way forward.

Of the 11 schools that the Observer visited yesterday, only two had received students for the day.

Wolmer’s High School for Girls Principal Colleen Montague told the Observer that classes will remain online, in spite of the ministry’s go-ahead.

“We are still having consultations with our parents. But what we know for certain is that we are going to proceed with online on Wednesday. It will only be with our grade 11 and sixth form students that we will be having face-to-face,” Montague said, adding that she had not received official word from the ministry that the school had been approved to reopen.

She also explained that parents were still concerned about sending their children to school for fear of possible exposure to COVID-19. And with the country seeing a surge yesterday in the number of positive cases — 154 new cases — the principal said this will affect the decision to resume face-to-face classes across other grades.

“That will have some bearing on how we proceed, because many parents are concerned, especially with having their children take public transportation,” said Montague.

The Observer was unable to reach the principal of Wolmer’s High School for Boys, who was said to be in a meeting with staff up to yesterday afternoon. That school also remained closed.

Other approved schools in Kingston and St Andrew that remained closed yesterday were Jamaica College, The Queen’s School, Campion College, and Excelsior High.

Excelsior Principal Deanroy Bromfield told the Observer that a date for the resumption of face-to-face classes for grade 11 students was still in the pipeline, while deliberations were ongoing about whether to continue with a dual modality of both online and face-to-face classes for the general school population.

“I have been in rounds of meetings with my heads of department to see how we will manage as we move forward with the resumption of school. But, as for the immediate future, we will be concentrating on our exam groups; that is grades 11, 12, and 13 students.

“That should take us into February, and by then we will be able to decide whether to return to the dual modality that we had implemented before, whereby upper school students come to school on some days, and lower school students come on the other days, meanwhile online classes are still happening,” said Bromfield.

At Penwood and Haile Selassie high schools, grades seven and 11 students showed up for orientation, with the Ministry of Health and Wellness’s safety protocols being strictly observed.

“Not all of the students turned up, because many of our parents are not comfortable sending out their children for the face-to-face because of concerns over COVID-19. Today we had approximately 80 students that turned up, and we had some parents calling to find out what is happening,” Jacqueline Bryan, senior guidance counsellor at Haile Selassie High, told the Observer.

“Today we have started face-to-face with the grade 11 students. Today was mainly orientation, with the purpose of getting them back into the system, because they have been out for nine months.

“We had a meeting with staff and orientation with students and parents who turned out this morning. The students were then sent to their classrooms with the protocols being observed. Their teachers would have talked with them about how classes will proceed and ascertain who was coming by bus or who would walk, and who would be dropped off by parents,” said Bryan.

She explained that online classes will continue for grade 11 students whose parents are not ready to send them back to school.

“Teaching actually begins tomorrow (today) face-to-face and online combined, because not all students will be coming back, and we cannot force parents to send their children to school. And if a parent opts to have to have their child stay home, we have no right to say that they must and they are compelled to send their child,” said Bryan.

At Camperdown and Donald Quarrie high schools, physical classes are expected to resume this week for grade 11 students scheduled to sit their Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams in June.

“The school, physically, is too small to accommodate more than one cohort at a time. And we thought it wise to have the grade 11 students return to school because they have exams coming up,” said Donald Quarrie Principal Talbert Weir.

“Today we had executive and general meetings with staff to reiterate the Ministry of Health and Wellness safety protocols.”

Sophia Murray, acting principal at Camperdown High, told the Observer that grade 11 students will return to online classes after orientation as the school continues to take precaution.

“We are concerned, because there is an uptick in cases. I know that the parents might not feel it wise to send their children to school, and, of course, the teachers will have some concern. And that is why as of next week we will be having classes online. We have to wait and see what will happen where the number of cases are concerned and be guided by what the ministries of health and education say,” said Murray.