KINGSTON, Jamaica — The People’s National Party Youth Organisation (PNPYO) says Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ attempt to put a “positive spin” on students learning outdoors because of hurricane-damaged schools is tone-deaf and shows a troubling lack of compassion for Jamaica’s children.

In a Wednesday statement, the PNPYO cited Holness’ comments at Tuesday’s launch of the Jamaica Reconstruction and Resilience Oversight Committee, where he suggested that teaching and learning need not be confined to four walls.

“These children are not sitting under trees because their teachers chose an innovative outdoor experience,” said General Secretary Peta-Gay Ferguson.

“They are there because their Government has failed to provide them with adequate classrooms.”

The organisation pointed to Parliamentary Secretary Senator Marlon Morgan’s confirmation that only 45 to 50 of more than 300 severely damaged schools have completed repairs, and the Ministry of Education’s acknowledgement that approximately 277 schools remain in mixed modality learning or temporary spaces.

It noted that at Holland Primary in St Elizabeth, students abandoned an unbearably hot tent for shade under a mango tree and a bamboo structure, while At Ocho Rios Primary, staff built makeshift classrooms to spare 1,100 students a rotational schedule.

At Maggotty High, the PNPYO shared that the National Education Trust funded eight wooden temporary classrooms because the Government had not made the necessary repairs.

Ferguson questioned whether the prime minister had sufficiently considered the experience of the affected children and their families before making his remarks.

“How many children of Government ministers or parliamentarians are being sent to school each morning to sit beneath a tree because their classroom remains damaged? How would any parent feel hearing, almost one year after a hurricane, that the prime minister’s response to their child’s inadequate learning environment is essentially that learning does not require four walls? Where is the compassion? Where is the urgency?,” she asked.

She maintained that the Government cannot admit recovery is too slow, then romanticise the consequences of that failure.

“For most Jamaican families, there is no private-school alternative. The government has a duty to ensure that those children are not disadvantaged because of the pace of the State’s recovery programme. Cut the PR. Stop dressing up hardship as resilience and failure as innovation,” she stated.

The PNPYO says it is demanding a full status report on every hurricane-affected school, including outstanding repairs, temporary arrangements, completion dates and resources allocated.

“After almost a year, Jamaica’s children deserve more than excuses. They deserve results,” the PNPYO said.