A reality check on damage in schools
Published:Monday | November 17, 2025 | 12:06 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
The recent comments by Education Minister Dr Dana Morris Dixon – expressing disbelief that schools repaired after Hurricane Beryl in 2024 were again severely damaged during Hurricane Melissa – deserve a calm, factual, and constructive response. While the minister’s frustration is understandable, it risks oversimplifying a complex reality and unintentionally placing blame where it does not belong.
First, we must remember that Hurricane Beryl and Hurricane Melissa were not comparable events. Beryl brushed Jamaica with destructive winds, prompting an emergency repair programme across more than 200 schools. Many of these works were patch repairs, rushed through emergency procurement to ensure that the 2024–25 academic year could begin on time. Patching roofs and repairing windows under tight timelines is not the same as full structural reinforcement or redesign.
Hurricane Melissa, on the other hand, was a Category 5 monster, delivering sustained winds, intense rainfall, and historic storm surge, particularly across St Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Hanover, Manchester and St James. Even well-built, code-compliant structures suffered catastrophic damage. To imply that schools failed simply because earlier repairs were poor is to ignore both the scale of Melissa and the age and design limitations of many school plants built decades before climate change reshaped hurricane behaviour.
Second, schools serve as hurricane shelters, often carrying thousands of community members during a storm. Overuse of bathroom systems, forced doors, broken windows, and heavy foot traffic cause additional damage that cannot be attributed to contractor workmanship alone.
Rather than insisting she cannot “understand” how repaired schools were damaged again, the minister must use this moment to lead with clarity. What Jamaica needs is not blame, but a national school resilience plan: transparent audits of Beryl repairs, updated climate-resilient design standards, and a ring-fenced fund dedicated to long-term rebuilding rather than repeated crisis patching. Climate scientists have already warned that storms like Melissa – supercharged by warming seas – are now part of our future. Our schools must be built for that future, not the past.
Parents, teachers, and communities deserve more than expressions of shock. They deserve leadership that acknowledges the realities of climate change, confronts systemic weaknesses, and crafts a forward-looking plan for safe, resilient schools.
It is time for accountability – yes – but also honesty, science, and serious investment. Our children deserve nothing less.
DUDLEY MCLEAN II
Mandeville, Manchester