Insurance plea
Educators want coverage for facilities, assets after two hurricanes ravage schools a year apart
Published:Friday | January 2, 2026 | 12:05 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
School administrators are urging the Government to introduce special insurance coverage for schools and their most valuable assets to better protect the education sector from future disasters, following the extensive damage caused by Hurricane Melissa.
The call was made by Lynton Weir, president of the Jamaica Association of Principals and Vice-Principals, during an online education forum last Saturday evening.
While noting that the immediate threat has passed, Weir stressed the need for proactive planning. He pointed to the severe destruction suffered by schools in western Jamaica as a clear warning.
“In preparing for the next hurricane season, I think it is going to be very important that our Government starts to put together insurance for our institutions and our facilities. I know [the bill is] going to be very big ... because we have almost 1,000 [public] schools in Jamaica,” he said.
“If it is that we’re not able to insure all of our schools, I think some of the valuable contents of our schools should be insured,” Weir added, suggesting key assets such as tablets and other digital devices at the least.
Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 storm on October 28 last year, leaving roughly 690 educational institutions damaged, ranging from leaks to total destruction of buildings, grounds, furnishings, and equipment. The worst-affected institutions were in the county of Cornwall – Westmoreland, St James, St Elizabeth, Manchester, St Ann, and Trelawny. Many of the schools have not yet fully reopened since.
Education Minister Dr Dana Morris Dixon said the repair bill will be “humongous”.
The devastation came just over a year after Hurricane Beryl also battered schools, leaving a bill exceeding $4 billion to repair 364 damaged institutions.
Weir, who is the principal of Old Harbour High in St Catherine, referenced a $2.88 million insurance payout issued in November to 98 farmers under the Rural Agricultural Development Authority who were affected by the hurricane, suggesting that a similar insurance framework could be extended to schools.
“Farmers now have been provided with insurance, and so I think schools should also have that sort of leverage as it relates to insurance. Moving forward, we need to look critically at how we’re going to protect our institutions because we fall within the hurricane belt, and we’re always going to have storms, so I think that should be top of the listing as it relates to us moving forward and making preparations for the next hurricane season,” said Weir.
The proposal received support from Mark Malabver, president of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, who emphasised the need to strengthen the physical infrastructure of schools.
“Another hurricane season is just around the corner. We need to stop giving lip service to resilience and start to invest in our infrastructure in a way that if a hurricane comes, we can start back school, literally, within a couple of days. We need to start doing those types of things to ensure resilience,” said Malabver, who is the headmaster at Yallahs High School in St Thomas.