PORT MARIA, St Mary — The excitement among students at Port Maria Primary School belied the chronic shortage of classroom space and furniture that left even the institution’s principal without a proper desk to use on Monday.

The school had been closed since February 1 when a massive flood forced the emergency evacuation of students and staff. However the Government recently gave the go-ahead for it to reopen — along with hundreds of other schools that had been closed due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“The preparation for reopening of the school was extremely hectic,” said Principal Carla Ruddock, who spent much of Monday seemingly in discomfort because she was without a proper desk.

“Where the principal’s office is concerned, we don’t have a functional desk here because it was damaged by the flood. That is the same for the secretary’s office and our two guidance counsellors and the physical education teacher. Where teacher desks and chairs are concerned, we need approximately 10 more,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

Ruddock also noted that the Education Ministry is yet to provide enough desks and chairs for students and so the school’s administrators had to improvise.

“We are in need of additional furniture. What we got from the Education Ministry is really not sufficient to seat the student population that is presently to be seated… We got approximately 82 single desks and chairs from the ministry along with five teachers’ desks and chairs. We need 100 plus desks and chairs if it is single desks and chairs for the students. And if it is the dual-seater, you are looking at 40 dual seaters,” the principal said. “We could say that approximately half of the furniture that we had in the school got damaged in the flood. We managed to rescue some, so to speak. We washed and sanitised them and they were dried, and we are reusing them in the classrooms.”

The challenges are compounded by the fact that Port Mary Primary, within the last few years, has been deprived of a total five classrooms. Three of those were severely damaged by the flood, and the other two were demolished a few years ago to facilitate works linked to a fliter bed.

The principal lamented that the Education Ministry is yet to fulfil its promise to replace the classrooms demolished, and it is yet to give a timeline for repairs to be done to the others damaged by the flood.

“We are awaiting the ministry’s response in terms of when we will be getting the additional classrooms requested or the classrooms to replace the ones damaged by the flood,” she disclosed. “To offset the challenges that surfaced as a result of the classrooms we have lost, we have to partition classrooms we already have so that we are able to have the total cohort of students here. In terms of the long term, Port Maria Primary needs an additional classroom block with modern amenities that go with an educational institution.”

Notwithstanding the adversities, students turned up for classes in their numbers on Monday.

Of the 892 on roll, 882 attended.

That turnout is not surprising to Ruddock.

“Many persons were anxious and they were constantly asking when it is that we will get back to the face-to-face classes — so they were anticipating the return and I think they were prepared,” she explained.

Students, who were given permission to speak with the Observer, were elated to be back on the school compound as opposed to being at home in virtual classes.

“It feels good to be back at school because of the difficulties in online school where you can get kicked out of the classes [because of connectivity issues] or if you don’t have Internet. When I was doing online school I was frequently kicked out of meetings, but I still managed to do my work. It is good to be back at the physical school,” said Abigail Smith, a sixth grader.

Her view is shared by one of her batchmates, Torrin Henry, an aspiring doctor.

“At first I felt anxious and nervous about returning to school but I am now very grateful that we actually get the chance to come back. The school looks way different from how I usually see it; it just shows a new perspective of staying here… Some of the students just feel excited to be here; others are worried about the school being flooded again,” Henry said. “Regarding the flood, I actually got a chance to experience something that I had never experienced before. I had to walk through the mud waters,” he added.

One student, who slid and fell on his buttocks in a muddy area at the entrance to the school, said even he is ecstatic about being back at the Port Maria Primary campus.

A number of parents also showed up at the institution, partly to ensure their children were having a smooth start following the recent flood that affected the entire parish capital.

Many parents, though thrilled by the resumption of face-to-face classes, expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of social distancing that they think may fuel the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“They part up my child’s class that was already small. That doesn’t make sense regarding social distancing. The Ministry of Education had enough time to fix things after the flooding, but it nuh look like dem very concerned,” said one parent who did not disclose his name.

Another parent, Karen Kidd, is also concerned about the shortage of classrooms. “I don’t have a problem with the face-to-face classes, but it is just the [novel] coronavirus protocols where there are too many children in the same class. That’s just my concern,” she said emphatically.

The principal, in the meantime, stated that she and her team are working assiduously to ensure students adhere to measures implemented to slow the pandemic.

“In terms of social distancing, the measures were relaxed somewhat in classroom spacing. We have tried as much as possible to adhere to the directives coming out of the Ministry of Education. Where the compound is concerned, we encourage students to adhere to the six-feet spacing. We have markers on the corridors that the students can use as guidelines,” she said. A number of wash stands were also erected at the school.