WITH some schools set to reopen on Monday, November 3, after an over-week-long closure forced by Hurricane Melissa, the Education Ministry is indicating that an “emergency plan” for continued learning for children in the hardest-hit parishes where structures have been decimated is being drafted.

Speaking at the daily Hurricane Melissa press briefing at Jamaica House on Thursday, Education Minister Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon said the plan, which has been entrusted to parliamentary secretary in the ministry Senator Marlon Morgan, will accommodate children in the parishes of Westmoreland, Hanover, St Elizabeth and St James, where the category five system levelled structures and roadways, disenfranchising thousands.

“I have asked Senator Marlon Morgan to work primarily on this emergency plan because we are going to have to have a plan… we are working through that. Right now it’s about getting food to individuals, it’s about getting those who may be injured assistance; it is not the time really for those concerns, but we are starting to think about it and we will give you updates at the appropriate time,” a concerned Morris-Dixon stated.

In the meantime, she said for the areas such as the Corporate Area, which were not so badly affected, “schools can resume”.

“We are in Kingston and when you drive around you see some fallen trees but it’s not bad at all. That’s not the case in other parts, so where we know that schools can resume we will be doing so on Monday, but a lot of our schools do not have electricity and they do not have water, even in places that weren’t as badly affected, and so we are doing the assessments and we are looking at an emergency plan,” the education minister said.

In a subsequent release issued to the media the ministry said clearance and damage-assessment teams have been deployed to every education region. It said psychosocial support is being mobilised alongside efforts aimed at replacement of damaged teaching/learning materials, and coordination with the Ministry of Health and Wellness for safe return protocols. In the meantime the agency said it will release a comprehensive situation report in short order covering the number of schools damaged, cost estimates for repairs, timelines for reopening, and the launch of the national “Learning Continuity” initiative.

Hurricane Melissa made landfall in western Jamaica as a Category 5 system on Tuesday, October 28, ripping apart buildings, roadways and vegetation before making its way to Cuba.

The Ministry of Education had on Wednesday, October 22, ordered all schools across the island to suspend face-to-face classes and transition to remote learning effective Thursday, October 23, in anticipation of the potential impact of what was then Tropical Storm Melissa after consultation with the Meteorological Service of Jamaica and the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, which had warned of heavy rains and possible flooding in several areas by that Thursday afternoon.

The damaged St Elizabeth Technical High School in Santa Cruz following the passage of Hurricane Melissa