KINGSTON, Jamaica— The phased reopening of schools has commenced for the 2021/2022 academic year with the reopening of 248 of the 376 approved primary and infant schools across the seven regions.

This was disclosed by Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Fayval Williams, during a statement to the House of Representatives on November 9.

She said the reports from all regions indicate that the majority of schools opened without any issues.

“Those that experienced challenges were mostly as a result of heavy rains and flooding in Region Four, which consists of St James, Hanover and Westmoreland. One school, Planters Hall Primary, reported a lack of electricity, which impacted its water pumps and so had to push back its opening. Robins Hall Primary was also impacted by power outages,” Williams noted.

She pointed out that some schools experienced minor issues, but nothing to stop them from opening and operating.

In terms of attendance, the numbers varied across schools, ranging from 85 per cent at King Weston Primary and Infant to 35 per cent at Rock Hall Primary.

“We recognise that Monday was the first day of school after a very long time of being out, and so we expect the attendance to improve as the month progresses,” Williams said, adding that the Ministry is not leaving the attendance at schools to chance.

“Our ‘Yard to Yard – Find the Child’ initiative has been rolled out officially. Additionally, for the past 18 months, the regional support teams and the school-based support teams have been working to locate and re-engage our students,” she added.

This includes approximately 3,550 persons working directly on this task – 80 Officers of the Ministry, 200 School Resource Officers from the Jamaica Constabulary Force and 3,271 school staff.

Before the start of the 2021/22 academic year, 25,642 of the 40,795 students who were absent for 100 days or more were located and re-engaged.

“We will not leave any child behind. We will be collecting data on a daily basis from our schools over the next two weeks to allow us to make an assessment of the opening of other schools. We will discuss the data on an ongoing basis with the Ministry of Health and Wellness, as we are guided by them as to additional schools that will be allowed to open,” Williams said.