ST JAMES, Jamaica — With the new school term set to begin next week, the Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) is mobilising to conduct a high-stakes assessment of educational institutions over the weekend. The goal is to gauge the true state of readiness on the ground following the catastrophic impact of Category 5 Hurricane Melissa in October.

“We will be doing some assessments over the course of the weekend to just gauge what is happening on the ground and after that, we’ll be in a better position to respond,” said JTA President Mark Malabver.

He was speaking with journalists during an interview at the reopening of the association’s western Jamaica office on Friday.

Malabver, in expressing deep-seated concerns regarding the reopening of schools, particularly in the hardest-hit western and south-western parishes, emphasised that the decision to return to the classroom must be rooted in the harsh realities of local infrastructure and the personal welfare of both staff and students.

“Well, of course, we will have concerns. The reality is that, you know, a significant number of the schools would have been impacted by Hurricane Melissa. We maintain that each school in terms of reopening, should be based on the realities of their own locale,” he explained.

Malabver also addressed the issue of some students being unaccounted for following the storm.

“You would have recalled that during COVID, a number of students were missing. The schools will have to respond to that. The guidance counsellors, for example, should be mandated to take necessary steps to try and identify where these students are and see if they can bring them back into the school community,” he said.

“Many of these students undoubtedly will have major challenges. Many of our teachers will have major challenges, and we want to just encourage our principals and our board to treat these matters on an individual basis,” the president added.

Coming out of the storm, Malabver noted that school administrations are also impacted by the aftermath.

“You know, the reality is that many of our teachers are suffering. They continue to suffer. They may not necessarily be in the best state of mind to engage the students in the way that they really deserve to be engaged. So for us, we are just encouraging the principals and the board to treat these matters on an individual or a case-by-case basis,” he said.

— Anthony Lewis