Education Minister Dana Morris Dixon - FILE PHOTO
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Education Minister Dr Dana Morris Dixon says schools will reopen next Monday, despite the fact that repairs at many of these schools have not yet been completed, following the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa.
Several schools were severely damaged or destroyed by the hurricane, and reconstruction work is expected to continue into the new school term, but Dr Morris Dixon insists the work will not interfere with teaching and learning.
She says the ministry is making arrangements to ensure students can return to safe and functional learning environs while repairs continue.
"This week the ministry is doing a lot of work to get us ready. Now, I think the biggest challenge has been the schools that were affected by Hurricane Melissa," she said, acknowledging that "there were so many schools, especially in the west, that were affected."
She said the ministry has contractors working on all of the schools that were damaged, but much of that work "has gone slower than we would have liked."
As a result, she said the ministry is putting in contingency plans in place.
"Schools must open next week, and that's been the directive to the team in the ministry," she declared.
In light of that directive, the education minister said school administrators are working to develop contingency plans to meet the needs of students.
"In some schools it's a rotational system that they're going to be putting in place. In some schools we've had to put up temporary structures for our schools and our students."
Admitting that the temporary structures were not ideal, she conceded that "it's the best that we have right now, and so we want to use those in as limited a number of spaces as possible, and also for the shortest possible time."
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