KINGSTON, Jamaica— A recent World Bank study for Jamaica showed that the fiscal impact to support the health and safety requirements for opening of schools will be in the region of J$2.4 – $3.9 billion annually for one to two years.

“This includes the cost of re-enrolment campaigns and outreach activities, providing targeted support for the most at-risk students, mitigating and preventing dropout and facilitating remedial education to minimise learning loss,” noted Education Minister Fayval Williams.

She was speaking in the House of Representatives on Tuesday where she provided an update on the performance of schools which reopened on January 3.

The minister shared that the World Bank concluded that the long term cost of inaction is in the order of J$828 billion, approximately 40 per cent of Jamaica’s Gross Domestic Product.

“Our efforts to re-open our schools face-to-face have to be seen against the significant learning loss our children have been experiencing since March 2020 when they were required to be at home.

“Since then, they have only been able to come back to the physical classrooms for very short periods, not enough to make a significant impact on the learning loss. As a result, we must do the best we can to keep our children safe as they travel from home to school, as they are in the classrooms and as they return home,” said Williams.

The minister is pleading with parents and guardians of primary age students for whom no vaccines are available to help to keep them safe by themselves getting vaccinated.

“To the parents of high school students, have a conversation with your children. Encourage them to take the vaccines. I give the same encouragement to all our principals, teachers, staff and all who work in the school environment and have to interact with our children, help us to protect them so they have the opportunity to recover the learning they have lost,” she said.

“The future cost is too great,” Williams added.

The education minister said schools will continue to operate using a blended approach where all students cannot be facilitated all at once in the face-to-face setting. These approaches include online learning, audio-visual platforms (TV and audio app) and the learning kits or packages with workbooks and worksheets depending on the grade level.