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BALACLAVA, St Elizabeth - There have been mixed reactions among school leaders at four institutions in St Elizabeth and Manchester ahead of the start of summer school next Monday.
Against a backdrop of extensive learning loss for students as a result of measures implemented to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, Education Minister Fayval Williams announced a tiered system to prioritise students for face-to-face learning during summer school, supplemented by online instruction.
George Lewis, principal of Roger Clarke High School in Balaclava, north-eastern St Elizabeth, told the Jamaica Observer that he is "concerned".
"While I appreciate the initiative and I see the need for it, I am concerned about the level of success we will achieve, because if our students were not afforded the opportunity to come out for face-to-face class instructions - except for the grade 11, 12 and 13 students who were preparing for exams - what has changed now that's going to cause them to come out for face-to-face for the next six weeks?" he asked
"How effective is it going to be if we have them coming out?" he added.
The veteran educator observed that students travel from communities more than 20 miles away to get to Roger Clarke High - sometimes changing taxis or buses in the process. He pondered the practicality of students travelling long distances to only be in class for two hours on any given day.
"In my case I have students coming from Abraham [a community south of Santa Cruz], as far away as Accompong [and] Mile Gully, [Manchester] to Balaclava for two hours for summer school. How effective is that going to be?" asked Lewis.
He pointed out that regional examinations have not yet concluded, compounded by the need to prepare for the September resumption of school after the long summer break.
"[Internal] exams have been completed, so we have reports to prepare. You also have repairs to be done to the plant, and then you have to prepare for your new students who are coming in grade seven. In light of the pandemic, the preparation takes on a different mould," he said, adding that he has to disaggregate data to determine where students are and what will need to be done to remedy learning loss.
Christopher Tyme, principal of Mile Gully High School in north-western Manchester, told the Observer that his institution will not begin classes on Monday.
"What we are doing now is trying to put together things in terms of getting our children, those who are interested, to be a part of it. We won't begin on Monday though, because some of the things are not in place as yet. We are [expecting] to have some children in [classes] by Wednesday," he said.
"Whether or not [it's] the summer programme we would have had some of these things so it is just a tradition, in terms of the years, [that] we are just continuing with them," Tyme added.
He said, too, that in terms of students from grades seven to nine, the team is still looking at those children because some of them "are the ones who we have [as] the greatest unengaged group so we have to really [look] through the list to see exactly which ones we have to bring in".
In northern St Elizabeth, principal of Siloah Primary School Oneil Larmond said he is awaiting clarity from the Ministry of Education regarding the number of students who can be accommodated per day.
"The only concern we have is, we are not [certain] as to the number of students the ministry will allow us to accommodate, and I am not privy to the information as to how many teachers and the names of the teachers that will be sent to our school," he said.
"We have the capacity, based on what the Ministry of Health has outlined, to accommodate up to 360 students on one day.... But the [previous] bulletin sent out by the Ministry [of Education said] we shouldn't accommodate more than 120 on the compound at any given time," Larmond added.
Simone Doctor, principal of Holland Primary School, said her school is getting ready.
"We have already submitted our list of students who we recommend for the summer school. I have teachers who have applied to be a part of the summer school. We are on board and we are getting ready," she said.