As Opposition Spokesperson on Education, I am deeply disappointed by the Government’s continued refusal to seriously consider our proposed Solidarity Student Exchange Programme. This, we believe, was a structured contingency plan designed to temporarily relocate students from severely damaged schools and communities in western Jamaica to structurally sound schools in less-affected parishes, including St. Catherine.

When this proposal was first advanced, the idea was not to simply move children from one school to another. We proposed an organised system involving willing host families, receiving schools, churches and community organisations, supported by appropriate vetting, parental consent, safeguarding and Ministry oversight.

We had willing host schools, along with principals ready to welcome these students, manage their integration and protect their academic continuity. What we did not have, however, was the support of the Ministry of Education or other government institutions.

Had the Ministry collaborated with us when this proposal was first advanced, the Solidarity Student Exchange Programme could have provided displaced students with up to 11 months of uninterrupted education, while giving the Government the time and space necessary to properly rehabilitate damaged schools. While that time was lost, the opportunity has not passed. The proposal remains relevant.

Even now, implementation could provide approximately four months of breathing room for the most severely affected schools. These four months can be used by contractors to execute work without having to simultaneously accommodate hundreds of students, thereby accelerating rehabilitation efforts to properly prepare schools for the safe return of students.

Unfortunately, we are now witnessing the consequences of trying to conduct education and major reconstruction simultaneously. Children should not be navigating active construction environments containing heavy equipment, exposed building materials, trenches, scaffolding and other hazards while trying to get to their classrooms. Additionally, these sites pose the hazards of construction dust, drilling, demolition, generators and the persistent noise and disruption associated with major building works while teaching and learning are taking place.

We should all be in agreement that longer-than-necessary delays that force Jamaican children to accept tents, makeshift structures and open-air arrangements as substitutes for safe and appropriate classrooms while major reconstruction continues around them are unacceptable. Indeed, our children are entitled to both access to education and a safe learning environment. The Government should therefore immediately consider the implementation of a workable and tested concept. 

Structured student placement with volunteer host families is a globally established model that has operated successfully for decades. AFS Intercultural Programs, for example, has facilitated international student exchanges involving volunteer host families since 1947 and has developed systems for screening and preparing host families, matching students, providing local support and maintaining appropriate safeguards.

There are also international examples of education systems adapting to large-scale displacement. European countries, for example, have integrated hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children displaced by war into functioning schools in their host communities. Once a child’s normal educational environment becomes temporarily unavailable or unsafe, the education system should adapt around the child rather than require the child to learn in unsafe conditions.

The Government therefore does not have to invent all the expertise required to make such a programme work. I am calling on the Ministry of Education to formally invite AFS and other reputable international student-exchange and child-safeguarding organisations to assist Jamaica with the technical design of an emergency student-hosting programme.

These institutions could help us establish the appropriate standards for host-family vetting, student-family matching, parental consent, safeguarding, monitoring, emergency response, school integration and the eventual return of students to their home communities.

We once again implore the government not to reject a workable solution simply because it came from the Opposition. Jamaica already possesses the most important ingredient in the form of Jamaicans willing to help other Jamaicans. Our Northwest St. Catherine experience demonstrated this willingness. Principals were prepared to receive students. Ministers’ fraternals and churches were prepared to assist. Psychiatrists from The University of the West Indies committed their support. Families were prepared to open their homes. Food for the Poor contributed furniture. What was required was for the State to provide the institutional framework through which that national solidarity could be safely mobilised.

I am therefore again calling on the Ministry of Education to urgently reconsider this proposal and bring the relevant stakeholders together.

The choices available to us are not limited to closing damaged schools and forcing children to learn alongside construction. There is a third option to temporarily relocate the children to host families and host schools, thereby keeping them learning while giving the builders the space to rebuild.

The immediate implementation of this proposal could secure a four-month reconstruction window if students are relocated for just this first term. We can use this window to accelerate the rehabilitation of our schools while protecting our children from unnecessary risk.

We can further demonstrate to the nation that when the safety and education of Jamaica’s children are at stake, national solidarity must come before political pride. The Opposition therefore stands ready to work with the Government to implement this proposal.