Residents rally to keep children in school despite commuting issues
Published:Thursday | November 13, 2025 | 12:07 AMKaren Madden/Gleaner Writer
When Hurricane Melissa tore through Jamaica with Category 5 strength, raging floodwaters swept away several bridges, including one at Hagley Gap, on the border of St Andrew and St Thomas, and another at Robertsfield in St Andrew.
As a result, students of Mount Fletcher Primary School, who live on the St Thomas side, have been unable to attend classes, which officially resumed for all grades on Monday.
The Robertsfield Bridge, which spans the Yallahs River, connects the communities of Halls Delight, Resource, Davis Hill, and Westphalia to Mavis Bank in rural St Andrew.
Two weeks after Melissa’s destructive passage, the bridge – once made famous by resident Clifford Brown’s viral “nobody cannot cross it” remark during a news interview years ago – remains badly damaged.
Community residents, however, have been working tirelessly to clear debris from under the structure to ease flooding and improve access.
When The Gleaner visited the area, several landslides had already been cleared, allowing single-lane vehicular passage in some sections – though the devastation, while severe, was less extensive than in western Jamaica.
At Robertsfield, a group of men were using long bamboo poles to unclog culverts beneath the bridge, trying to reduce the water pooling on top. One of them, known as Chiney, said their efforts were motivated by concern for the children who must cross to get to school.
“A me cross the people dem wid some other yute when it (Yallahs River) come down. It did critical; nobody could cross it. So now we use these things (long bamboo sticks) to remove the debris. The yute dem haffi guh school, and dat a di most important part. Wi nuh want everybody a come and haffi tek off shoes, so wi a try get it fixed as soon as possible.
“The tractor was here, y’know, but it hackling (hard) for him, so you can see him heap up di sand dem. So weh wi a do now is try get the culvert work right across. So once di culvert work, the people can walk over.”
Another resident, French, also told The Gleaner they had no choice but to act.
“We break the water in a way ... so wi haffi use dem yah (bamboo sticks) and shake it suh di water wash weh di leaf dem and move out the stone dem,” he said.
Mount Fletcher Primary, with an enrolment of 178 students, was left without electricity, Internet, and water after the hurricane. Despite these challenges, grade-six teacher Nicola McCarthy said classes resumed for the exam cohort of 30 within a week to prepare for the upcoming Primary Exit Profile exams.
“Some of our children are marooned in different communities. So we have adjoining communities such as Westphalia and Hall’s Delight on one side – they are unable to cross because of land slippages along the roadways – as well as the bridge that the water eroded over in Robertsfield,” said McCarthy.
She told The Gleaner that online learning remains difficult due to poor connectivity, but the school is gradually regaining stability.
“We are still without electricity and our attendance record is not at 100 per cent, as Hagley Gap children are still marooned. School goes up to 12:30 for all classes, except for the grade-six group.”