Ocho Rios High School welcomes 100 visiting students

Principal of Ocho Rios High School, Marvin Clowson, says while the school is accommodating students displaced by Hurricane Melissa, it will not be processing transfer requests at this time.

Ocho Rios was among the schools that reopened on November 10, under a directive from the Ministry of Education. The institution escaped the worst of the hurricane and regained electricity within the same week.

With several schools still unable to operate at full capacity, Ocho Rios High has opened its doors to students from across the island.

“We have quite a large number of other students here,” Clowson said. “We have a large number of students from Westwood High School (in Stewart Town, Trelawny), from St Hilda’s High School (Brown’s Town, St Ann) and in smaller numbers we have from Knox (Spalding, Clarendon), from Mount Alvernia (Montego Bay, St James), we have even Maggoty, (St Elizabeth), quite a few schools. Some days we have over 100 in terms of visiting students.”

Transfer requests Declined

Visiting students are placed in classes of similar grades and share the teaching and learning experience. However, Clowson stressed they will return to their original schools once normalcy is restored.

“The thing I have not done and have no intention of doing is to work on any transfer at this moment,” he said. “Several parents would have come to me and I told them no. A disaster would have happened, they belong to a school, they’re just fitting into the gap for the time being, as soon as they’re ironed out they have that opportunity of going back to their school. So we’re not dealing with any transfer at the moment.”

Although Ocho Rios High has been reopened for three weeks, some students have yet to return, suggesting their households might still be recovering from the hurricane’s impact.

Clowson said staff went into communities to locate absent students. Some have since returned, while others remain unaccounted for.

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