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Christopher Tyme, Principal of Mile Gully High School in Manchester
The Ministry of Education's Yard to Yard programme to find children who had not attended classes during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic is getting high praises from principal of Mile Gully High School in Manchester.
Christopher Tyme says of the 279 students who had not been engaged in classes, only eight have not been located.
He says a social worker assigned by the Ministry of Education and the school's guidance counsellor made more than 300 calls to parents to determine the challenges they were facing.
Mr. Tyme told Radio Jamaica News that students revealed a lack of shoes, school supplies and money for transportation were reasons for them not attending classes.
Hearing these excuses, the school was able to secure shoes as well as schools books and bags for those students in need.
"We have our internal welfare programme, where we provide taxi fare to students and we are also part of the rural bus transportation system where PATH children are provided with full transportation," Mr. Tyme added.
After addressing most of the concerns, the school managed to bring back about 188 students at the start of the new term, and by March, only eight students had not returned.
"The initiative really was about ensuring we didn't give the parents any excuse not to send their children to school," the principal noted.
However, he admitted that challenges remain as some students attend school sporadically because they are employed.
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