Children’s advocate takes issue with Holness’ ‘learning closer to nature’ remark

At least one organisation representing the interests of children has taken issue with Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness’ comment about students “learning closer to nature” under trees as the new academic year began, less than a year after Hurricane Melissa devastated sections of the island.

Speaking at Tuesday’s launch of the Jamaica Reconstruction and Resilience Oversight Committee, Holness cited media reports of children attending classes under trees because their school in western Jamaica had not yet been repaired.

More than 600 schools were damaged by the Category Five hurricane in October last year, including over 300 that suffered severe damage and require extensive rehabilitation or reconstruction.

Education Minister Senator Dana Morris Dixon had acknowledged ahead of the reopening on Monday that not all repairs would be completed by the start of the new school year.

Contingency measures, including temporary classrooms, rotational schedules and other arrangements, were put in place as repairs continue.

Some teachers set up classes outdoors under shaded trees.

The Prime Minister insisted that the children were “learning closer to nature” and said that, while he was in school, he found outdoor class settings cooler than classrooms.

But the Fi We Children Foundation (FWCF), in condemning the Prime Minister’s remark, said it “risks romanticising conditions that children should not be expected to accept, particularly where students are learning in temporary facilities, near ongoing construction or in environments that may not meet appropriate standards for safe and healthy learning.”

In a release on Wednesday afternoon, the organisation argued that “children forced to learn under compromised conditions should not have those circumstances presented as an educational advantage.”

The FWCF – a non-partisan, non-governmental organisation dedicated to empowering Jamaican youth, with a special focus on those in rural communities – pointed to persistent concerns about the pace of repairs to schools damaged across several parishes by Hurricane Melissa.

Holness on Tuesday again conceded that he, too, was disappointed by the pace of the post-Melissa recovery.

While Morris Dixon has pointed to a shortage of registered contractors as one factor contributing to delays in repairing the damaged institutions, the FWCF questioned whether “this challenge should have been identified and addressed much earlier in the recovery process. Effective disaster recovery requires planning, procurement and contingency measures that anticipate foreseeable implementation challenges before children have already returned to compromised learning environments.”

The FWCF also urged the Government to “urgently provide the public with transparent timelines for the completion of school repairs, explain the safeguards in place for children attending schools undergoing construction, and ensure that disaster recovery efforts are guided by children’s rights rather than public relations narratives.”

The Government has committed almost $26 billion to repairs and reconstruction, with the pace of work varying from school to school. The Education Ministry says some projects are expected to be completed by the end of September, while others will continue into October and, in some cases, into next year.

The ministry has also acknowledged shortages of skilled workers and building materials as contractors race to repair schools while simultaneously responding to the wider national reconstruction effort following Melissa.

- Karen Madden

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