JTA reiterates call for Melissa shelterees to be relocated, bemoans inconvenience to schools
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Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) President Mark Malabver has hit back at recent remarks by Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie concerning the sheltering of residents at schools post-Hurricane Melissa, calling the inconvenience to students and teachers unacceptable.
Speaking at today’s first day of the JTA’s 2026 education conference at the Princess Grand Hotel in Hanover, Malabver said that the association has received reports of students and teachers being unable to use their classrooms where shelterees engage in unsavoury activities while occupying the buildings.
Those reports, he said, included shelterees engaging in sexual activities in full view of students, as well as teaching supplies going missing following their occupancy of schools, while students and teachers have to conduct their classes under tents.
“When we hear the claim by the Minister of Local Government that there is no displacement, we must ask, what do we call it when students are removed from classrooms and placed in tents? What do we call it when schools operate on rotation systems because classrooms are occupied by shelterees? We are not talking about garbage and garbage collection, neither are we talking about parks and markets, or parish council roads; what we are talking about are the conditions of service of our members,” said Malabver.
“The JTA has both a right and a duty to represent and protect the interests of our members, and we will do so without apology.”
On March 3, McKenzie reported that there were disruptions by displaced victims of Hurricane Melissa who were being housed at school properties following the passage of the Category 5 hurricane on October 28.
The JTA had previously called for the shelterees to be relocated from the schools.
The Ministry of Education subsequently reported on March 26 that eight schools were being used as shelters to house 93 people following Melissa.
- Christopher Thomas
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