SINCE “a community without a school is no community at all”, the leadership of Content Gap Primary School wasted no time in charting a new path to keep learning alive after Hurricane Melissa, even as the institution grapples with a lack of electricity, limited water supply, and damage to its infrastructure and community roads.

“I believe that the children of this community — the ones that attend Content Gap Primary — they rely on the school for socialising, et cetera, and we want the community to see that things are happening at Content Gap Primary,” the St Andrew school Principal Tanya Lynch Davis said.

But with overcast afternoons plunging classrooms into darkness, raising concerns about students’ vision, and the school’s cooking facility crippled by the power outage, administrators have cut the school day from the usual 7:45 am to 2:10 pm schedule, to have classes now run from 8:00 am to 12:00 noon.

In fact, Lynch Davis shared that she is currently utilising a solar light from her home to assist with the issue. However, looking to a more long-term solution, she is advocating for the installation of solar panels at the educational institution, noting that such equipment would do wonders in preventing learning loss for the students from grades one through six, by ensuring a more reliable and sustainable power supply, even in the midst of a disaster.

“If we had solar panels, we would not be ending school at 12 [noon], because we would’ve had electricity and would be able to purchase our protein in order to cook the hot lunches [for the students] and also for the classes to be lit,” the principal told the Jamaica Observer last Tuesday on a visit to the community.

Lynch Davis shared that the institution already has a water harvesting system and five water tanks that can sustain it for a limited period.

Despite the challenges, through strategising, the team has carved out what they believe is the best way forward, working to address the needs of staff and students.

The first order of business was a clean-up mission on November 3, followed by a staff meeting a week later on November 10. Three days later, the school reopened, with priority placed on providing psychosocial support for teachers and students.

“Moving forward, it can’t be a one-person decision; it has to be everybody because we have to know how the staff is — if the staff is affected or not. Hence, we went through all of that; we had a psychosocial session with the teachers, and we spoke about our experience, we joked about some things to make light of the moment, and then we charted the way forward.

“In charting the way forward, we opted to have the students back at school last week Wednesday and Thursday, for their psychosocial sessions. We had prayer and then we had games; they spoke about their experiences and we made light of the moment so that the students would be able to take most of their [minds] off of Hurricane Melissa,” said Lynch Davis.

She told the Sunday Observer that no student or teacher was severely impacted, but roadblocks and telecommunication issues has impacted school attendance.

“There is one teacher, her family is in St Mary, and she wasn’t able to get through to them [via phone call], so we had to give her time to [go there to]…and she visited to make sure everybody was okay. Also, there is another teacher who [now uses] an alternat[ive] route. She lives in Middleton and the Newcastle road [to get from that area] was torn away, [so] she had to take the alternat[ive] route via the river, and it is a treacherous journey. However, she has since relocated, temporarily,” the principal explained.

She said, too, that “a few students [live] in St Peter’s, where the road was cut off, [but] the [residents] managed to place planks along that path so that the students can walk across. There are two students [who] live in Lower David’s Hill, so they would have to cross the Yallahs River around by St Peter’s [to get to school]”.

While attendance was impacted, initially, the principal said the numbers have since stabilised. All the students in grades four to six have completed their unit tests and will now move on to preparing for their Primary Exit Profile assessments. Lynch Davis said the school will continue with its four-hour class sessions, which she does not believe will impact their exam preparations.

“Most of the lessons were timetabled earlier in the year, in September, from 8:00 am to 12:30 pm, so we shouldn’t have a challenge there, and the teachers are on board with the decisions that have been made because they are a part of the decision-making process,” she explained.

She stressed the importance of education and urged other schools to rally around their students to provide support during this difficult time.

“I’ve seen where some students were impacted by COVID[-19], and now students are being impacted by [Hurricane] Melissa and, as an educator, I believe…we should really take some things into consideration. I know that…schools are about teaching and learning, but we still need to think about the psychosocial part of it because where children and staff are not okay, or they are affected, then it leads to more challenges in the sector,” said Lynch Davis.

Principal of Content Gap Primary Tanya Lynch Davis speaking with the Jamaica Observer team outside a classroom at the school last Tuesday.

LYNCH DAVIS…I’ve seen where some students were impacted by COVID[-19], and now students are being impacted by [Hurricane] Melissa