Most Hurricane-Damaged Schools to be Repaired by Year-End

Minister of Education, Andrew Holness is projecting that by year end, the majority of the 500 schools, which were damaged during the passage of Hurricane Dean, should be repaired.
“We have managed to develop a process to ensure that some work should start on all schools that were affected during the passage of Hurricane Dean by December the latest,” Minister Holness reported during a press briefing held on Tuesday (October 9) at the Ministry’s National Heroes Circle office in Kingston.
According to the Education Minister, of the 500 schools that were assessed, 258 have received funds amounting to $120 million. These schools will be repaired under the supervision of the Ministry.
In explaining the basis on which the funds were provided to the schools, Minister Holness noted, “In the case of a primary school, if the damage is under $1 million then we would provide the funds directly to the school to execute the repairs. If it is a tertiary institution or a secondary school and the damage amounted to $4 million or less then we would also provide the funds.”
According to Mr. Holness, a number of overseas partners such as the Department for International Development (DFID), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have also provided assistance to repair schools.
The assistance, he said, amounted to $41 million which is being used to repair 11 primary and seven secondary schools.
“Where possible, we have also extended existing contracts so there are schools that were being repaired prior to the hurricane and we saw it fit to extend those contracts to take into account the damage that was done by the hurricane,” Minister Holness further noted.
“Sixty-four such schools are being repaired under this mode and we estimate that this will cost the Ministry approximately $100 million,” the Minister reported.
To date, the Ministry has started repairs on 340 schools of the 500 that were assessed at a cost of approximately $261 million. The Minister explained that a portion of the funds used was taken out of money designated for the education transformation process because of the urgency of the cases.
“The Ministry of Finance committed to us $500 million. We have submitted to them a cash flow but we have not yet received the funds; however, we expect that those funds will be made available to us shortly so that we could refund the transformation process,” he said.
Most of the schools that were affected during the passage of the hurricane are located in Region Six which comprises St. Elizabeth, Manchester, Clarendon and St. Catherine. The cost of repairs was estimated at $700 million.
In the meantime, the Minister noted that a special committee has been established under the Early Childhood Commission to evaluate the extent of damage sustained by community based early childhood institutions. The Ministry is also seeking assistance from overseas partners to repair these institutions.