Community colleges struggle to bounce back from Melissa’s battering

A senior official in the Ministry of Education says community colleges heavily damaged by Hurricane Melissa have received interim clean-up grants to help remove debris from their campuses.

With concerns growing over the disruption facing students whose colleges suffered major destruction, the ministry has adjusted the academic calendar. The first semester, which normally ends in December, will now conclude in early January 2026.

Dr Tamika Benjamin, assistant chief education officer in the Tertiary Unit, told The Gleaner yesterday that damage assessments are now under way at community colleges in the worst-affected parishes. A ministry team has already visited Brown’s Town Community College in St Ann, where the roofs of all classrooms were extensively damaged.

Several institutions – including Bethlehem Moravian College in St Elizabeth; Moneague and Brown’s Town community colleges in St Ann; Knockalva Polytechnic College in Hanover; and the Montego Bay Community College and Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College in St James – are still without electricity. Benjamin said the ministry is in discussions with administrators about providing generators. She noted that once power is restored, most colleges can resume teaching, except Sam Sharpe, Bethlehem, and Montego Bay, which require additional repairs.

Sam Sharpe cannot reopen until its dormitories are repaired. Montego Bay Community College faces significant structural issues: the membrane on the slab roof of an 84-classroom block was torn off, causing persistent flooding; another section with aluminium covering was destroyed; and the administrative block suffered major damage.

The Knockalva Polytechnic College sustained the most extensive losses.

“The broiler unit was completely destroyed and the dairy unit was destroyed,” Benjamin disclosed.

Further, she said the dorms and all the classrooms lost their roofs at the institution.

“That one we are in some discussions with, because the ministry’s approach is to build back better, and so we are not looking to patch. We now have to make some strategic decisions but assessments will be done as part of that decision-making process,” she said

STUDENT WELFARE AND RETENTION COMMITTEE

To support students affected by the hurricane, the ministry has established a student welfare and retention committee. Benjamin said access to relief supplies is being arranged so that students are not forced to drop out.

“If we are not careful, we will lose some of the students, and certification at the higher education level is very important, so we are trying to minimise the impact,” she told The Gleaner.

Howard Isaacs, head of the Council of Community Colleges of Jamaica and principal of Moneague College, said his institution sustained minor roof damage and lost its greenhouse and chickens.

He said the college has been carrying out clean-up exercises with the hope that electricity and water will return, so that some aspects of its operation can resume on November 24.

Isaacs said psychosocial sessions will be held with students, faculty and staff on Monday with the hope that some classes will resume next week.

He added the principals along with the secretariat of the Council of Community Colleges have been meeting to examine how students will be assessed for this semester, as they have already lost two weeks.

“One thing we do know is that whatever is done will not be at a disadvantage to our students. We will try our utmost to make sure that all our students are catered to and we facilitate them as best as possible,” Isaacs said.

Brown’s Town Community College Principal Claudeth Haughton said the institution is trying to put temporary measures in place to restart its programmes, as their adult students want to resume their studies.

She said electricity and water have returned to the nursing campus at St Ann’s Bay. However, the other two campuses at Discovery Bay and Brown’s Town, in the parish, are yet to receive light and water.

Haughton thanked staff, students and other volunteers who have assisted in the clean-up exercise.

Portmore, Excelsior and Trench Town were not affected by the hurricane and have resumed classes.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com