MANDEVILLE, Manchester — School leaders in Manchester and St Elizabeth say there was a smooth start to the academic year here despite some schools being affected by teacher migration.

Principal of St Elizabeth Technical High School (STETHS) Keith Wellington said his institution, with a population of 1,780 students, is in need of four teachers.

“Things have gone very smoothly, with the exception that we still have some vacancies to be filled. We have four vacancies that we need to be filled,” he told the Jamaica Observer on Monday.

Okeshue Bigby, principal of Schoolfield Primary and Infant School, located west of Malvern in St Elizabeth, said the institution was off to a smooth start as of Monday.

“…In terms of the teacher shortage issue, we are only in need of one teacher. We are expecting 95 students,” he said.

Acting principal at Mile Gully High in north-west Manchester Claudette Robinson-Shaw said: “The start has been good; we had a robust devotion. The students and teachers, I can see that they are ready. We only have some late registration; we have over 600 students. We had one teacher who resigned on short notice — that space is not yet filled, in the business department,” said Robinson-Shaw.

Acting principal at May Day High, a few miles south of Mandeville, Pauline Brown-Hanley said her school was in need of one teacher.

“We have one replacement that we need to put in place but we are working on that because the person who intended to come just (on Friday) said she can’t take up the position anymore,” said Brown-Hanley.

“For the entire week we have orientation; on Friday we expect to have all students here. In attendance today [Monday] we had 162 of 200 students in the first form,” she added.

Principal of Kendal Primary, a few miles north-east of Mandeville, Maxine Headley said her school is in need of a guidance counsellor.

“We got a 42-day sick leave from a teacher on Friday so we need a teacher replacement. We have put things in place until that is sorted out. The challenge now is to have a classroom teacher in place and a guidance counsellor, so that should be sorted out, and then we are good to go amidst all the challenges that we face,” she said.

She added that the school is short of well-needed furniture.

“I am expecting about 150 students. We are down with some furniture so we need some money to get the furniture out of the way. We have quite a number of termite-infested desks and chair… Students are currently sharing the dual desks and chairs,” said Headley.

Acting principal of Lacovia High, located west of Santa Cruz in St Elizabeth, Andrew Morris said despite the school still being on the shift system, which is “always a challenge”, the institution implemented strategies recommended by the Ministry of Education, namely engaging retired teachers and pre-trained graduates.

“The teachers are here. We have not been affected greatly by resignations so we are grateful for that. We only need to contract two teachers for social studies and visual arts. We are looking to do an interview for social studies. The visual arts remains a crisis because there is a [shortage of teachers for that subject],” said Morris.

“The students are ready to go; so far they are looking smart. We didn’t have the full cohort [on Monday as] we are having a phased reopening; [on Monday] we only had grade-seven students. I expect the enrolment to be about 1,300 students,” he added.

Principal of Mile Gully Primary School in north-west Manchester Heiley Salabie-Knight said her school was not affected by teacher migration.

“We made a few changes. We have one staff member who is off on eight months’ vacation leave. We have not lost any teachers to migration — and that we are thankful for — and we made some changes in regards to the cohort in terms of the location of classes,” she said.

“This academic year is an exciting one for us; it is one that we are looking forward to. We are expecting a population of 195 students,” she added.

Students at Mile Gully Primary were given a red-carpet welcome on Monday.

“We want to give them a welcoming feeling of special treatment coming back into the physical space since they were out for the summer break, and welcoming them back using the red carpet gives them a feel of being important. They are working their way to academic stardom; as one will say: ‘Stars walk the red carpet,’ ” explained Salabie-Knight.

Davina Rearrie whose child attends Mile Gully Primary commended the school for the use of the red-carpet welcome.

“I really appreciate the effort of the school to welcome back the kids for the new school year; we appreciate it as parents. We know it will be a good school year going forward. Kids like the balloons, so even when they saw the red carpet they were very excited,” she said.

Principal of Holland Primary, located west of Santa Cruz, Dorothy Evans Wright said her school is in need of a gateman.

“We had all our students on Monday and we have our full staff complement. Everything is off to a smooth start for us,” she said.

She said parents have expressed security concerns.

“We, ourselves, are in [agreement] with them. We would need a gate person, so that is our main challenge,” she said.