By George Henry, Gleaner WriterMINISTER OF Education Maxine Henry-Wilson has congratulated school administrators for the untiring work they have done to ensure that their institutions were able to be reopened for the resumption of classes following the passing of Hurricane Ivan last month.
Addressing principals and their deputies at the annual retreat of the Association of Principals and Vice-Principals at the Grand Lido Braco Resort in Trelawny on Saturday, the Education Minister said the work of the principals and vice-principals to have classes resumed was carried out in a timely manner and in a context in which she knew principals and their second in command, as well as their senior teachers and other classroom teachers have all suffered, themselves personally.
GAVE UP TIME
However, she noted that many gave up time to attend to their own personal concerns at their homes, due to the devastation of the hurricane, to attend to the needs of their schools, in the spirit of nation building and professionalism.
The Education Ministry pointed out that from discussions at the level of the ministry, with the Jamaica Teachers' Association and other interest groups, she was aware of the fact that many students have been traumatised, but that she was also aware that there were teachers as well who have been traumatised themselves by not only the hurricane itself but by subsequent events.
Meanwhile the Education Minister said that personnel from her ministry, the Office of National Reconstruction and the UDC have successfully visited schools to carry out examinations and put together estimates for the restoration of schools.
"The actual start up of restoration should be within this (last) week. All of them are not going to be done at the same time, but what we are trying to do is to identify the schools where they are almost non-functional because of the physical situation," said the Education Minister.
She said if some principals did not see their school being repaired this (last) week, it would be because they were not included among the worst affected schools. The other schools to be repaired, she said would be done over a period of time and she hoped to have them restored to some level of functional normality.
SMALL SUM
Mrs. Henry-Wilson pointed out that there are several schools where their estimates of expenditure for repairs may be a small sum. However according to her, when the actual repair work commences schools may find out that walls are weak, zinc sheeting and board are rotting and cannot be re-used, so estimates may lead to further expenditure. This will mean that all the work cannot be done at one time, she explained. Mrs. Henry-Wilson called on school administrators to assist building officers and contractors as much as possible in the restoration of their school plants in a timely manner.
The Education Minister also stated that efforts were being made to carry out an inventory of books and computers, as well as other important equipment that may have been lost during the hurricane. She stated that the inventory will be critical, as it will assist in determining how the performance targets set by schools for this year will be restored. Mrs. Henry-Wilson pointed out that the restoration in the performance targets is crucial, particularly for those schools which have GSAT students.
