Work has been completed on 151 schools that were damaged by Hurricane Melissa under the Government’s reconstruction programme.
Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Hon. Rhoda Moy Crawford, made the disclosure at the recent quarterly media briefing of the Education Transformation Oversight Committee (ETOC) held at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Regional Headquarters in Mona, St. Andrew.
“We are making progress in terms of where we are with the schools. When we started in September, we were a little over 50 in terms of the number of schools that were completed and I did mention in several interviews that by the end of October, we would’ve seen a significant increase based on where we were. So, I’m very, very happy today that we can report that we have 151 of our schools completed,” Ms. Crawford said.
She noted that the institutions include 144 Priority One schools, six Priority Two, and one Priority Three school.
“If you want to further break down the 144, we have 63 of those schools that are absolutely complete, and the other 81 is at 95 to 99 per cent completed, so just minor work,” she pointed out.
Ms. Crawford said the Government is using the reconstruction programme to improve the resilience of school buildings, rather than simply restoring them to their pre-hurricane condition.
The upgrades include stronger roofing, improved windows, better ventilation and higher ceilings to make classrooms more comfortable for students and teachers.
Ms. Crawford said that the Ministry has been monitoring the work at affected institutions to ensure that the completed facilities meet the required standards.
Chairman of ETOC, Dr. Adrian Stokes, pointed out that 682 schools across the island were affected by the hurricane, with the institutions classified according to the severity of the damage.
Schools placed in the Priority-One category are those that suffered the most extensive damage and require more intensive repairs and reconstruction.
Dr. Stokes noted that approximately $9.2 billion had been spent on rehabilitating hurricane-damaged schools.
He encouraged greater coordination among the Ministry and its agencies, including the use of additional capacity where necessary, to accelerate the recovery effort.
“We want the speed, we want the schools to be rehabilitated, we want the Ministry to be agile. All of the capacity may not necessarily lie in one agency but we need to be smart enough to leverage capacity across the country and, indeed, to import the capacity if necessary. We must get back our schools to an appropriate learning environment for our kids,” he said.