Just last week, in this space, we highlighted the dangers of fast-growing childhood obesity among Jamaican children — largely fuelled by unhealthy diet and alarming decline in outdoor physical activity.

We pointed to a 2026 Global School-Based Health Survey (GSHS) showing that 31.7 per cent of Jamaican adolescents assessed are overweight — up from 21.7 per cent in 2010 and 23.3 per cent in 2017. The study showed obesity up from six per cent in 2010 to 15.3 per cent today.

For years, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has led an unrelenting campaign against poor diet, including unhealthy sugar-based foods and snacks, while emphasising the need for not just children, but all Jamaicans, to be physically active.

We are constantly reminded that unhealthy diet and inadequacy of physical activity fuel lifestyle diseases that are taking a heavy toll on health, well-being, and an over-stressed national economy.

Early this year, as he defended new taxes on sugary drinks, Dr Tufton reminded us that lifestyle diseases caused by a combination of poor diet and inadequate physical exercise are killers. Said the minister at the time: “Obesity, diabetes, hypertension are the main drivers of our sick profile, which leads to about 18,000 to 20,000 deaths every year in our country.”

At the time, this newspaper urged “a powerful restoration of emphasis on physical activity for all ages to protect public health”.

“Crucially,” we argued, “outdoor sports and recreation should be prioritised in all schools. That’s especially important in today’s world with many children slavishly glued to digital devices”.

Against that background, we note that in western Jamaica administrators responding to the ongoing emergency brought on by Hurricane Melissa are turning to recreational space for temporary classrooms and such.

We appreciate that in some instances there may well be no option. But we note the seeming outrage from principal of Carisbrook Primary and Infant School (close to Lacovia in St Elizabeth), Mr Patrick Malcolm, who insists that recreational spaces are being taken up as the easy way out.

He suggests that it’s part of a culture — pre-dating the current hurricane-driven emergency — which places physical education and physical activity way down the metaphorical totem pole of the school curriculum.

Mr Malcolm was critical of decisions to use already limited sport and recreational spaces at Maggotty High, and Middle Quarters Primary and Infant School (both in St Elizabeth) for temporary classrooms. Such measures will not only adversely affect spontaneous and organised sport, they will limit or prevent practical classes in physical education for the immediate future.

According to Mr Malcolm, president of the St Elizabeth Football Association, alternative spaces may well be available, particularly at Middle Quarters.

Principal of Maggotty High Mr Sean Graham says he expects that by year end recreational space at his school should be properly restored.

Beyond that, we reiterate our belief that all schools should, as a matter of priority, have adequate space for sport and recreation.

To that end, we believe the project to build back better, post-Melissa, should include properly formulated playing fields for those schools which are currently without. That is, if all the talk about ensuring a healthy future for our people is not mere sham.