MONTEGO BAY, St James — Some schools in hurricane-ravaged western Jamaica will resume classes next week, relying on a blend of shift systems and makeshift tents, as needed, to get students back to the business of learning, according to Education Minister Dana Morris Dixon.

The focus will initially be on those taking exams, she said,  noting that Cornwall College is among schools set to resume classes, joining Mount Alvernia High which welcomed back some of its exam-taking cohort Wednesday.

“We are working to get schools back, Cornwall College is going to get some students back on Monday. Most of the high schools in the region are working on it and so the focus for high schools is on those doing CSEC and CAPE,” Morris Dixon told reporters following a tour of schools in Trelawny and St James Wednesday.

“And then for primary schools, it is those doing PEP. So that’s what we’re prioritising: getting those children back into school so that they cannot miss out too much on the classes that they need to do well in their exams,” she continued.

On Wednesday, 144 out of Mount Alvernia High’s 263 exam-taking students made it to school. The education ministry’s regional director for region four, Dr Michelle Pinnock, explained that some students may have been temporarily placed at other schools in order to minimise disruption to their studies.

Wednesday’s tour by Morris Dixon and members of her team was an effort to determine the level of destruction wrought by the storm and steps being made at recovery. Morris Dixon also outlined a basic framework of the approach being taken by her team.

“The ministry is going to support as best as we can to get temporary structures up. Schools like Cornwall College and many others that I’ve been to today need tents. We’re going to have to use tents to supplement the classroom space that we have available,” she said.

“We’re also looking at some other more semi-permanent structures too in the ministry but all of those you’ll hear a lot more about,” added the minister.

Morris Dixon encouraged resilience.

“Some schools we’re going to have to have some students in on some days and not others, something like a shift system. Some will be morning, some will be evenings, so there is going to be a lot of flexibility that is required,” she said.

The minister conceded that it will be tough for schools in St James and Trelawny to get back to normal.

“I know we speak about many parishes have been affected, but Trelawny and St James really do have significant damage and today we’re concentrating on those two parishes,” she said.

“You see classrooms completely gone, structures with no roof, it is bad in many of our schools,” she added.

Looking long term, she hinted at changes in the way schools are built, utilising more of the slab roof method.

“Last year, some of the schools that I went to today were affected by Hurricane Beryl and we spent millions of dollars fixing them. And then this year, we’re back at it again,” Morris Dixon pointed out.

“That’s not providing value for money for our country. And so we have to have our schools be in a condition that means that they can continue to operate even when there is a natural disaster like a Hurricane Melissa. We can’t just put Band-Aids on; I’m not into the Band-Aids. It has to be a completely different look at our schools, we have to reimagine the schools,” she added.

She used the tour as an opportunity to thank local staff and stakeholders who have put in the work needed so that schools which are able to resume next week will do so.

“I have to thank all of the leadership of the schools. It’s hard, it’s hard going in the communities. There’s no water, there’s no electricity but they’re still out,” she said.

“They are trying their best to get schools open and so the entire country owes them a debt of gratitude and so we thank them,” she added.