When Schools Collapse, Futures Are Put at Risk: Education Recovery After Hurricane Melissa

Executive Summary

Hurricane Melissa exposed long-standing weaknesses in Jamaica’s school infrastructure, leaving many children without safe places to learn. While large-scale rebuilding will take time, targeted, community-based support can help students return to education with stability and dignity. This article outlines why school infrastructure matters for recovery and how StarterBlox Foundation is responding in a focused, realistic way.

Hurricane Melissa did not only damage homes and roads across Jamaica. It revealed a deeper, long-standing issue: fragile school infrastructure that left many students vulnerable long before the storm made landfall. When Melissa struck in October 2025, those weaknesses became impossible to ignore.

According to PreventionWeb (2025), numerous schools across Jamaica suffered severe damage due to aging buildings, limited structural reinforcement, and insufficient disaster preparedness. In some cases, classrooms collapsed entirely. In others, roofs were torn away, walls cracked, and sanitation systems failed. For students and teachers, learning stopped immediately.

Infrastructure Failure Is an Education Crisis

Schools are essential infrastructure. When they fail, the consequences extend far beyond physical damage. Children lose routine, safety, and access to education at the very moment stability matters most.

PreventionWeb (2025) notes that many Jamaican schools were constructed decades ago and were never designed to withstand stronger, more frequent storms. Climate-driven hurricanes are no longer rare events. Yet investment in resilient school construction has not kept pace with this reality.

The result is predictable. A single storm can erase months or years of educational progress, particularly in rural or under-resourced communities where alternatives are limited.

What School Closures Mean for Children

When classrooms are unsafe or closed, children face uncertainty. Some are forced to travel long distances to overcrowded schools. Others remain at home indefinitely, increasing the risk of learning loss, disengagement, and long-term setbacks.

Teachers are also affected. Many are expected to resume instruction without adequate facilities or materials, while managing personal losses from the hurricane. Recovery efforts often prioritize emergency relief, leaving schools waiting months or longer for meaningful repair (PreventionWeb, 2025).

This gap between emergency response and education recovery is where lasting harm can take root.

Why Targeted Support Still Matters

Large-scale infrastructure rebuilding requires government leadership, international funding, and time. Community-based organizations cannot replace those systems. What they can do is prevent children from being left behind while broader recovery unfolds.

StarterBlox Foundation approaches this work with that reality in mind. We do not attempt to rebuild entire schools or address national infrastructure gaps. Instead, we focus on practical, achievable support that helps children return to learning safely.

In Westmoreland, one of the parishes most affected by Hurricane Melissa, we are working directly with Mount Airy Primary School as they prepare to reconnect with students. Our focus includes learning supplies, hygiene support, and safe temporary learning conditions that align with wider recovery efforts.

These steps may appear modest, but for a child who has experienced disruption, stability matters more than scale.

Resilience Begins in the Classroom

The PreventionWeb report makes a critical point clear: climate resilience must include schools. Without stronger, safer education infrastructure, children will continue to bear the cost of future disasters (PreventionWeb, 2025).

Education recovery is not only about reopening doors. It is about signaling to children that their futures remain a priority. Every safe classroom, temporary learning space, or supply kit reinforces that message.

Call to Action

StarterBlox Foundation is committed to supporting education recovery in a focused and transparent way. We work in partnership with school leaders and within our capacity, complementing larger recovery efforts already underway.

You can support this work by:

• Following our updates from Mount Airy Primary School

• Helping amplify the importance of resilient school infrastructure

• Contributing toward learning and hygiene supplies for students returning to school

Recovery takes time. Education cannot wait.

References

PreventionWeb. (2025). Weak infrastructure leaves Jamaican schools devastated in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa. https://www.preventionweb.net/news/weak-infrastructure-leaves-jamaican-schools-devastated-aftermath-hurricane-melissa