WHITHORN, Westmoreland — Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) President LaSonja Harrison has welcomed the National Education Inspectorate’s (NEI) planned assessment of Coke’s View Primary School in this parish. Scheduled for September 28, the inspection will coincide with classes being held in temporary board structures erected to fill the gap at facilities damaged by last October’s Hurricane Melissa.

“Let us see what the Ministry of Education will come in to inspect [at] the Coke’s View Primary School. When the inspection is done, then the union [JTA] will speak thereafter,” stated Harrison in response to queries from the Jamaica Observer during a tour of the institution Tuesday afternoon.

A senior teacher at the institution informed Harrison of the NEI’s planned visit. Formed in 2008, the NEI evaluates schools across eight key performance indicators (KPIs), including student output, student welfare, infrastructure, and governance.

Temporary board structures on the compound of Coke’s View Primary School in Westmoreland on Tuesday. (Photo: Anthony Lewis)

Harrison expressed strong dissatisfaction with the conditions observed during her visit to the school on Tuesday afternoon. Not much progress appeared to have been made since the JTA toured the campus in June. At the time, classes were being held inside a board structure and tents that routinely flooded during rainfall, prompting early dismissals. While the tents have since been abandoned, they have been replaced by unfinished temporary board structures.

“We have mandated the reopening of schools and we now see four additional [board structures] to the one that we came and saw, so they now have five. But they are incomplete, and school is supposed to be reopened. And we have not observed on-site any work taking place, unlike in other schools,” Harrison pointed out Tuesday.

Temporary board structures being constructed by workmen on the grounds of Unity Primary School in Westmoreland on Tuesday. (Photo: Anthony Lewis)

She is also concerned about conditions at Unity Primary School.

“Unity is one of the largest shift primary schools in Savanna-la-Mar. And if it is today, the 8th of September, [that] you have abandoned the tents, when was the work being done in order for them to transition to the temporary structures [which], again, [are] being built without lighting?” asked the JTA president.

Noting that the casting of one of the school’s two-storey buildings took place in August, Harrison questioned the overall pace of reconstruction.

Roadwork being done on the main thoroughfare in front of Unity Primary School in Westmoreland on Tuesday. (Photo: Anthony Lewis)

“We’re calling on Government, corporate Jamaica — all hands need to be on deck for us to mobilise. I am yet to see a national mobilisation to say: Let us get our schools back on their feet to accommodate the business of teaching and learning for the nation’s children,” argued the JTA head.

There is high demand for Unity which has 1,400 students enrolled. A massive project is underway to not only repair but significantly upgrade the school.

Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) President LaSonja Harrison is left dismayed after viewing incomplete temporary classrooms board structures at Coke’s View Primary School in Westmoreland on Tuesday. (Photo: Anthony Lewis)

During a visit in July, Minister of Education Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon spoke of the extensive work planned for the facility.

“We are re-slabbing the roof. They had zinc on their roof; we are going to be able to slab the roof there. So that’s a much better solution for us for the future in terms of resilience. We’re also building a new auditorium — the auditorium is being torn down. We’re also creating two sets of classroom blocks. We’re doing the perimeter fencing, we’re doing the bathrooms… It’s basically a brand-new school,” she said then.

On Tuesday, in addition to the school grounds being an active construction zone, road patching was underway along the main thoroughfare directly in front of the institution.