The Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information is reporting that 65 of the 306 priority-one schools damaged by Hurricane Melissa have been fully repaired.
This was disclosed by Executive Director of the National Education Trust (NET), Latoya Harris-Ghartey, during a special briefing on Monday (September 14) at the Ministry’s Caenwood Centre Complex in Kingston.
“We have 93 schools that are between 80 and 99 per cent complete; those should be completed between now and October. Then we have another 26 schools that are lined up for the end of December, and those are our most severely damaged institutions,” she said.
The Executive Director also explained why most of the schools have not yet been completed, despite the passage of 11 months since Hurricane Melissa.
“When we started hurricane recovery, we had a plan that spanned 2026 to 2030. The reason being… we are not trying to put back what was there. We learned lessons from [Hurricane] Beryl [and recognised there were issues] that we couldn’t simply fix. We had to preserve taxpayers’ money, and we had to do better than what was there before,” she stated.
“We also introduced new building standards in December 2025, and Hurricane Melissa gave us the opportunity to introduce those standards quicker than we would have if we did not have hurricane recovery,” the Executive Director added.
Mrs. Harris-Ghartey noted that engineers were engaged to conduct structural assessments, and the reports received were used to guide the implementation plan for each school.
She further noted that, in some schools, zinc roofing will be replaced with concrete slab roofs.
“A slab roof can’t be blown off by a Category 5 storm, if it ever happens again. We also took the time to ensure that we were putting in as much features from our building standards as possible. [We looked] at [issues such as] the cooling of the classrooms… that we know existed prior to Hurricane Melissa. So, we are taking the opportunity to really improve, enhance and just ensure that the school environment is better than it was before,” Mrs. Harris-Ghartey said.
The Executive Director further noted that, in some schools, particularly those in the hardest-hit areas, the recovery efforts include elements of rebuilding, with NET reconstructing classroom blocks or, in some cases, entire facilities.
“Those schools will take us longer. For several of those, right now, we have designs that have been produced using our new standards. Our structural engineer has reviewed them to ensure they’re falling in line with the building standards that we have. We’ve also engaged the [Municipal Corporations] to let them know that these schools are targeted for rebuilding and that we want to implement emergency education building, so that we can start the construction ahead of a permit and basically provide the [Municipal Corporations] with as-built drawings once we have completed those,” Mrs Harris-Ghartey explained.
She further indicated that some schools have timber structures in place, and that this is the case for most of the institutions where extensive rebuilding is being undertaken.
“Those were informed by the building standards. So they’re done to the classroom dimensions required for a school at the primary level and the secondary level, depending on the institution. We also looked at ventilation. So you’ll notice they have windows to allow for cross ventilation and ensure that the classrooms aren’t heated,” the Executive Director said.
“There’s flooring, because we know flooring is [an important issue]. We also put in fans. as we know it’s hot and that we’re all feeling the effects of the weather. We’re also trying to improve where we’ve deployed tents… usually where the construction period should be shorter. So, we are listening to our stakeholders and we’re looking to put in whatever cooling mechanisms we can,” Mrs. Harris-Ghartey added.
