St James schools hard hit by protest
WESTERN BUREAU — Schools in St James appeared to be the worst affected by yesterday’s strike by taxi operators incensed at steep hikes in fines for road traffic offences.
“The strike had a very serious impact on my school today,” Dr Walton Small, principal of Anchovy High told the Observer.
With a population of over 2,400 students and 91 teachers on a two-shift system, Small said that yesterday’s attendance was below 30 per cent.
“Because of the low turnout, we had to dismiss classes on the evening shift about two hours before the usual 5:15 pm time,” Small said.
He said that although some classes were held, he was “almost sure” that the teachers would have to repeat the lessons taught.
Small also told the Observer that the school’s canteen lost thousands of dollars because of the decline in attendance.
St James High School in Montego Bay was another of the schools in Western Jamaica that felt the brunt of the strike.
Acting school principal Leroy Williams, said just over 1,000 of the nearly 2,500 students turned up for classes on the morning shift, but the afternoon shift, he said, had roughly 200.
He, too, dismissed the afternoon shift before the scheduled 5:15 pm.
Williams explained that more students were able to turn up for classes on the morning shift because the taxi operators in the Montego Bay area did not start withdrawing their services until after the first shift began.
The Barrett Town Primary and the Flankers All-Age schools in the parish were also badly affected.
In addition to students not turning up for classes, scores of teachers were unable to make it to school.
But the impact of the strike was not that devastating in the parishes of Westmoreland, Hanover and Trelawny.
Principal of the Petersfield Comprehensive High School in Westmoreland, Basil Chambers, told the Observer that attendance on both shifts at the school was “fair”.
He said, however, that the afternoon shift was dismissed early because of the protest.
“We wanted to give them (students) enough time to get home because we were not sure how they would reach home so we dismissed classes early,” Chambers explained.
Granville All-Age School in Trelawny was among the schools in the parish that was not affected by the taxi operators’ protest.
According to the principal, Evadney Jarrett, attendance at the institution was very good. She explained that most of the nearly 900 students on roll use the school bus to travel to school and because the bus was operating, the students had no problems with transportation.
Meanwhile, information officer at the Ministry of Education and Culture, Edwin Jones, told the Observer yesterday that his ministry is yet to determine the impact of the strike on the schools in the Western parishes.
“We haven’t yet received a report from that region and we didn’t ask for one today, but I don’t think that it had a great impact on the schools,” Jones said.