JAMAICA-Jamaican students return to school still feeling the impact of Hurricane Melissa.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Hundreds of schoolchildren returned to their classrooms on Monday for the start of the Easter Term, with the Education Minister, Dr. Dana Morris Dixon, assuring parents that challenges beyond their control will not jeopardise their children’s academic future.

More than 600 educational institutions sustained damage during the passage of Category 5 Hurricane Melissa on October 28, and Morris Dixon said some schools will continue with temporary arrangements while major repairs are underway.

“Some will share spaces with our innovative host schools, and others will use blended approaches, and for a little while longer, learning will continue in these modalities,” she said in a Back-to-School Message for the new term.

“We’re not just restoring what was damaged. We must use this disaster to rethink, redesign, and rebuild an education system that is safer, smarter, and more resilient for the future. The level of damage we experienced just a few months ago should not be experienced again,” Morris Dixon said, adding that beyond temporary solutions, the aim is to rebuild a stronger education sector.

The damage caused to Jamaica by the hurricane that killed at least 45 people is estimated at more than US$9.9 billion, and the Education Minister said that for many families, this return to school is not easy, as the new term follows one of the most challenging periods in Jamaica’s recent history.

She said Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica hard, especially the western end of the island, disrupting school operations and the lives of thousands of students and staff.

“From day one, our teams across the Ministry, our partners, our school leaders, and our communities came together. We worked around the clock to clean up, repair, restore, and, most importantly, make sure our students and stakeholders can return to safe learning spaces as quickly as possible,” she said, expressing gratitude to school boards, principals, and teaching and ancillary staff for their excellent leadership at the school level.

“Your creativity and your heart have gotten us to this point, and today I’m so proud to say that many schools across Jamaica will be back in session,” she said.