Tent classroom controversy deepens as Moy-Crawford responds to JTA president

Jamaica Live News Desk– | Sept 11, 2026

KINGSTON, Jamaica — The controversy surrounding the use of tents as temporary classrooms at hurricane-damaged schools has intensified, with Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, Youth, Skills and Information Rhoda Moy-Crawford responding to concerns raised by Jamaica Teachers’ Association (JTA) President LaSonja Harrison over conditions facing teachers and students.

At the centre of the debate is Holland Primary School in St Elizabeth, where classrooms were damaged or rendered unusable following Hurricane Melissa and temporary tents were introduced as part of efforts to keep students in school while reconstruction continues.

Moy-Crawford has shared video showing one of the temporary tents being used at Holland Primary, explaining that the structures form part of a mixture of accommodations being provided while permanent reconstruction work advances.

“This is an example of the tents being used as temporary classrooms at our schools (damaged by the passage of Hurricane Melissa) while we advance reconstruction works,” Moy-Crawford said.

According to the state minister, students at Holland Primary are being accommodated in newly renovated classrooms, original classrooms that remain suitable for use, or temporary solutions such as tents.

She further stressed: “No teacher is made to teach or child forced to learn outdoors.”

What happened at Holland Primary?

The controversy, however, is more complicated than a simple disagreement over whether tents exist or whether teachers are being “forced” outside.

Holland Primary Principal Simone Doctor previously confirmed that excessive heat inside one of the temporary tents caused teachers and students to abandon it on the opening day of the new academic year.

The tent had initially been expected to accommodate two classes, but Doctor said conditions became too hot for even one class to remain comfortably inside. Grade three students and their teacher subsequently held lessons beneath a mango tree, while grade two students used an outdoor bamboo structure. The principal said the school was seeking powerful fans and portable air-conditioning units to make the tents more suitable.

The school has been grappling with a significant shortage of usable classroom space. It has approximately 215 students and needs five classrooms to comfortably accommodate them, while only three conventional classrooms were available ahead of the new school year. Hurricane Melissa destroyed a wooden structure that had previously housed two classrooms, while another section of the school has been affected by mould, leaking and structural deterioration.

The situation has therefore placed the school in the difficult position of trying to maintain face-to-face learning while permanent facilities remain unavailable.

JTA president raises alarm over tents

Harrison has been among the most vocal critics of the temporary arrangements.

During visits to hurricane-affected schools, the JTA president raised concerns about both the pace of repairs and the suitability of tents as classrooms, particularly during Jamaica’s intense heat.

Harrison argued that some of the tents become extremely hot and are unsuitable for housing students for prolonged periods. She also criticised what she described as insufficient urgency in completing temporary structures before the beginning of the academic year.

Her concerns have extended beyond Holland Primary. During visits to other hurricane-affected institutions, Harrison questioned the pace at which temporary classrooms and reconstruction works were progressing and called for greater intervention to accelerate the rebuilding programme.

The issue has consequently grown beyond one school into a wider debate over whether Jamaica’s temporary education infrastructure is adequate nearly a year after Hurricane Melissa.

Moy-Crawford pushes back

Moy-Crawford’s intervention appears aimed at providing greater context to images and reports of students receiving lessons outdoors.

Her position is that tents are temporary solutions, not permanent replacements for classrooms, and are being used alongside renovated and existing facilities while damaged schools undergo reconstruction.

Her declaration that no teacher is being made to teach outdoors and no child is being forced to learn outdoors also draws a distinction between the Government directing schools to conduct outdoor classes and individual schools adapting to conditions on the ground.

That distinction is significant at Holland Primary.

The available reporting indicates that students did, in fact, receive lessons outdoors. However, the school’s principal explained that the decision was taken locally after conditions inside a temporary tent became unbearably hot — not because the Ministry of Education had instructed teachers to conduct classes beneath trees.

The debate therefore centres not only on whether outdoor classes occurred, but on whether the temporary facilities provided were sufficiently suitable to prevent schools from having to resort to outdoor alternatives.

Harrison’s own JTA legal battle enters the discussion

Harrison’s prominent criticism of the Government has also attracted scrutiny from some critics because she is currently leading the JTA while pursuing a legal dispute involving the organisation itself.

The dispute dates to March 2023, during Harrison’s first tenure as JTA president, when the association accepted the Government’s three-year wage offer through a virtual special delegates’ vote.

Harrison challenged the process, arguing that the association had violated its own constitution by using a virtual vote rather than an in-person meeting. She subsequently filed a lawsuit against the JTA in July 2024. The lawsuit was unsuccessful, and Harrison later returned to the presidency for the 2026–2027 term.

Her legal dispute is separate from the substantive question of whether the temporary classrooms are adequate. Nevertheless, critics have raised the unusual circumstance of the JTA president publicly challenging Government education policy while simultaneously remaining engaged in a legal dispute involving the organisation she now leads.

Any suggestion that the lawsuit is motivating Harrison’s criticism of the classroom conditions, however, would be an allegation rather than an established fact.

A much bigger post-Melissa problem

Behind the political and institutional arguments is a much larger issue: Jamaica’s schools are still recovering from Hurricane Melissa.

Holland Primary illustrates the scale of that challenge.

The hurricane destroyed a wooden classroom structure that had served the school for approximately 15 years, while other ageing sections of the campus have been affected by mould and leaks. The school also experienced increased enrolment after Melissa because some students displaced from other institutions transferred there and subsequently remained.

That has left administrators attempting to educate more than 200 children with severely constrained classroom space.

The Government’s decision to use tents is therefore intended to keep schools functioning while reconstruction proceeds. But the experience at Holland Primary has exposed a fundamental weakness in that solution: a temporary classroom must still be capable of functioning safely and comfortably as a classroom.

If extreme heat makes a tent unusable and forces teachers to seek cooler spaces beneath trees, questions inevitably arise about ventilation, cooling and whether the temporary infrastructure is appropriate for Jamaica’s climate.

At the same time, abandoning temporary facilities altogether could leave hurricane-affected schools without enough space to accommodate students while permanent rebuilding continues.

It is also important to note that the situation at Holland Primary does not reflect conditions at every hurricane-affected school. A number of schools were repaired and prepared in time for the start of the new academic year, while others continue to face more complex reconstruction challenges. Holland Primary is located in St Elizabeth, one of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Melissa, where the scale of destruction has made recovery particularly difficult.
The Government has also established the National Recovery and Reconstruction Authority (NaRRA) to coordinate Jamaica’s wider rebuilding programme, along with JAMRROC, an independent oversight mechanism established to support accountability and scrutiny of the reconstruction process. These bodies have responsibilities extending beyond schools, as Jamaica undertakes the broader rebuilding of homes, public infrastructure and communities damaged by the hurricane.

The debate Jamaica now faces

The Holland Primary controversy has increasingly become a test of Jamaica’s broader hurricane-recovery effort.

Harrison and the JTA are pressing the Government to move faster and questioning whether some temporary facilities provide acceptable conditions for teachers and students.

Moy-Crawford, meanwhile, is emphasising that the tents are temporary measures being used alongside repaired and existing classrooms and that the Government is continuing reconstruction rather than treating tents or outdoor spaces as permanent educational facilities.

Both sides of the controversy intersect at one undeniable reality: Holland Primary still does not have all the permanent classroom space it needs.

The images of Jamaican children learning beneath trees and bamboo structures may have become the symbol of the controversy, but the larger question is how quickly those temporary arrangements can be replaced by safe, properly ventilated and permanent classrooms.

For parents, teachers and students, that — rather than the political argument surrounding the images — is likely to remain the most important measure of Jamaica’s education recovery after Hurricane Melissa.

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