Lloyds Basic School, in the pastoral district some three miles from Yallahs, St Thomas, is breathing a sigh of relief, not simply because it now has the funds to rehabilitate the concrete structure on which to perch its water tank for maintaining school hygiene, but the rehabilitated structure also means the school will be able to keep its doors open to serve the community, when face-to-face classes resume.

Expressing her gratitude for the cash donation from the Jamaican-owned remittance brand JN Money, to mend the concrete platform, a relieved school principal, Elesha Cuthbert, disclosed that without the structure, the school would not be able to meet the minimum standards to maintain its permit from the Public Health Department, and consequently its certification by the Early Childhood Commission.

With a history dating back some 30 years, the current school is the result of a merger with the Associate Gospel Basic School in 2017. It currently caters to 28 children – about half the number it had pre-COVID-19 – and is staffed with three teachers, including the principal.

‘CONSTANT FLOW OF WATER’

“We used to have a water pump, but it had stopped working and so we needed a gravity feed for the tank. It was agreed that getting a structure on which to place the tank would fix the issue. Most of the times we have water being pumped to the school only twice per week, but now that the concrete structure will be in place, we have a constant flow of water,” an elated Cuthbert related.

Reflecting on when the school had no water supply, she recalled how she and her small staff of teachers, and even the students, had to bring water to the bathrooms by bucket to fill a water drum that would then be used to flush the toilets.

Sanya Wallace, senior manager for strategic planning and marketing at JN Money, said the support to Lloyds Basic School was the initiative chosen this year for the JN Money School Assist programme, which provides financial support to schools and students in need and forms a part of the company’s annual Back-to-School campaign.

She noted that education is especially important to JN Money because a significant percentage of remittances to Jamaica are intended to assist with schooling, especially in rural areas such as Lloyds District.

“It’s not only important for us to provide convenient and safe services to our customers, but for us at JN Money, it’s important for us to continuously find meaningful ways to give back to our customers and their communities,” she affirmed.

She explained that Lloyds was selected for assistance by the JN Group’s philanthropic arm, the JN Foundation, which conducted a needs assessment of the institution after receiving a letter from them earlier this year.

“And after speaking with the principal to further assess their needs, we were positive that the impact of this initiative would be far-reaching, as it would not only assist with maintaining good hygiene practices and providing basic amenities to sustain a healthy school environment safe from COVID-19 and other infections, but it would also keep the school in operation to provide more opportunities for the community’s children,” said Wallace.

With the school’s water woes almost now in the institution’s past, Cuthbert is looking forward to the announcement when schools, nationally, will reopen for face-to-face classes.

Lloyds’ student population declined to a mere 15 during the height of the pandemic, she informed, as, similar to all public schools across the country, the basic school had to close its doors and move its teachers and students to online teaching and learning.

Several children in the farming district are still without devices and the community depends only on Wi-Fi signals, which makes engaging students in a virtual space very challenging.

“We go out to meet with and teach some of the students at least twice per week, because there are some students that we have not been able to reach at all owing to the fact that they do not have gadgets, and some of the surrounding areas have no internet connectivity or mobile data connection,” she said, giving some insight into how the school has been coping.