JTA blasts slow pace of Hurricane Melissa school repairs

President of the Jamaica Teachers' Association, Mark Malabver, is accusing the Ministry of Education of “dragging their feet”, in restoring schools damaged by Hurricane Melissa.

Malabver is contending that this dawdling is obvious in the National Education Trust’s (NET) own admission that there are insufficient inspectors to oversee the $24.8 billion school renovation programme.

“I am wondering why at this point, if you are short of 40 inspectors, why did you not take necessary steps to have these inspectors in place. If it is even to pull on students from the University of Technology, for example, in those various departments to help us to bolster the inspection, to bolster the inspection regime,” he said.

Speaking with The Gleaner on Monday, NET Executive Director Latoya Harris Ghartey said at least 40 on-site building inspectors are needed to adequately oversee the massive school restoration programme. She said the agency is urgently trying to recruit 15 inspectors as an immediate measure, while acknowledging that significantly more personnel will ultimately be required.

Malabver said the JTA undertook a tour of schools in western Jamaica in June, and wrote to the ministry expressing concern about the slow pace of repairs.

During the tour, the JTA said it found “little evidence” of the level of activity that would be expected if the schools were to be restored by September – the beginning of the 2026/2027 academic year.

It said isolated instances of work being done were observed, and it was advised that contractors have been mobilised. However, in many schools, contractor presence appeared limited, construction activity appeared minimal, visible progress was inconsistent with the urgency of the situation, and the pace of work did not inspire confidence that the completion targets would be met.

“Clearly, they should have taken necessary steps to exert pressure on the contractors to get the job done. Clearly, they have dragged their feet in terms of putting the right framework in place to hold the contractors accountable,” Malabver told The Gleaner.

According to him, if some schools were to reopen in their current state, that would constitute a violation of the International Labour Organisation Convention of Occupational Health and Safety, and the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child.

Minister of Education Dana Morris Dixon has acknowledged that not all repair work on schools will be completed in time for the reopening on September 6; however, last week she said she was encouraged by the progress of the rehabilitation programme.

“We have to be transparent in terms of what’s happening in our schools, and we will be transparent throughout the process… and as I said, because so many of the schools need complete rebuild, they’re not all going to be finished for September. Work will be continuing throughout the period,” she stated.

- Sashana Small

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