MONTEGO BAY, St James — Despite being ravaged by Hurricane Melissa just over two months ago, several schools in St James are set to resume full classes today even as administrators say the situation will not be perfect.

Among those set to welcome all students are two of the hardest-hit schools — Maldon High and Catherine Hall Primary — whose principals say they will be pulling out all the stops to make the environment as accommodating as possible for their students.

Maldon High Principal Janet Manning told the Jamaica Observer, “We are not a hundred [per cent ready]. We are nowhere near 100 but guess what? We are going out there, we are taking care of the major things.”

According to Manning, Maldon High will reopen today with students in all the grades.

“We are receiving support from the Ministry [of Education], from our regional office, and from our building officers. We are receiving support in terms of the whole push to get things on the way,” added Manning as she pointed out that the school lost sections of the roof, among other types of damage when the Category 5 storm struck on October 28.

“We have done what we can do at this stage. We have done some covering, we have the tarpaulins, we have cleaned up our compound nicely — and that is something the [education] ministry is very big on. We have been putting a lot into sanitisation as we are ensuring that we don’t have anything like rats…cleaning up the place so that the children, staff, and all categories of workers can come back in a decent and safe environment,” said Manning.

The determined principal noted that the school will reopen with limited electricity as there is no power in the area. But this will not stop the resumption of teaching and learning.

“We don’t have any light but we have our generators; these were [received] through donations and so we have been using those,” Manning said.

She told the Observer that while they look forward to the return to regular classes, access to the school will be a challenge for students and teachers as the road to the campus collapsed.

“One of the things…is that we are up the hill, and one of our real problems is that the road has broken away,” said Manning.

But she pointed out that they have been working out a solution to that problem.

“We have been in touch with the rural school bus system. The general manager for the western end has spoken to me, and they have given us their assurance that they are going to do their very best to use an alternative route to see how best we can get the children from down in Montego Bay to come up to us without so much of a cost to the kids,” added Manning.

In the meantime, full classes are also scheduled to resume at Catherine Hall Primary School — which is in one of the communities hardest hit when Melissa made her destructive trek over the south-western end of the island.

Principal Kay-Esther Malcolm told the Observer that all students will be accommodated as the school will receive well-needed support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Representatives of UNICEF are set to spend just over a month at the Westgreen-based institution offering psychosocial support to children still traumatised by the storm.

“UNICEF will be here for, I think, four to six weeks…offering some services to our children — because, you know, a lot of our children have been traumatised and so they have come and they are going to be with them,” said Malcolm.

“Whatever they need [will be provided]. If they need to talk to somebody they will be having their psychologists and other support, and any other thing they can help them with,” added Malcolm as she underscored the importance of support for the children in the aftermath of Melissa.

“Many of our children live within the area, [and] many of them don’t have uniforms, they have lost their books — everything except their home structures. So when they come in…we are going to find out their needs on Monday, and throughout the week we will know how we can go about helping them — and that’s why I am happy that UNICEF will be here,” added Malcolm.

She acknowledged that conditions for the returning students will be far from ideal, but insisted that learning must continue, especially with the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examination set to happen soon.

“We are going to do our best. We are going to double our efforts to make sure our children do well. They may not be able to catch up everything but with God’s help we are going to do it and we are going to keep up our standards,” declared Malcolm.

She noted that the teachers did some work with the students during the period when Melissa prevented regular classes, by printing and distributing learning material.

Malcolm added that Catherine Hall Primary — which was left buried in mud after water from the nearby Barnett River receded following Melissa — received much-needed support from a sibling institution in Montego Bay, Barracks Road Primary.

“We owe them so much. They took our grade six children in all four classes and accommodated them.They joined classes so we could have our own classes,” Malcolm said.

She told the Observer that when she visited the her school following the Category 5 storm she had fears about if, or when, teaching and learning could resume.

“In my mind I just said, ‘Oh, my God! How are we going to do this? How are we going to get back the school in good and regular standing?’ because when I came, water, mud, and everything was all the way up,” Malcolm said.

“Every classroom, you couldn’t see the floor, just mud and all the other things that came with it. The kindergarten got the worst of it. The canteen doesn’t have a roof so we don’t know how we are going to prepare cooked meals for the children but we are going to start with some dry goods like patties, coco bread, hot dog and those things,” said Malcolm.

She pointed out that the fencing and gates at the school were destroyed by the flood water, and several windows were also damaged.

On Friday, team members were hard at work doing clean-up activities to ensure that the school would be in a state of readiness to accommodate the children.

“The sanitising crew came back on Friday to do a deep sanitising and deep cleaning for the last [time] before school returns,” said Malcolm.

Principal of Catherine Hall Primary School Kay-Esther Malcolm has welcomed the support she will receive from UNICEF when classes resume today.

A tent provided by UNICEF at Catherine Hall Primary School 

Residents of Catherine Hall in Montego Bay, St James, clearing away the mud dumped in their homes by Hurricane Melissa.