Padmore is a sleepy little district nestled in the hills of West Rural St. Andrew and it is sheer hell to traverse the stretch of road getting to it from Sterling Castle. It is about two to three miles of road that appear as if it had suffered carpet bombing in the latter part of the Iraq war.
Vey few people knew of Padmore or heard mention of it until Padmore Primary, a school hosting the poorest of the poor and slated for closure just a few years before, had its cadre of G-SAT students ace the test and secure places in top ranked high schools which only accept students scoring in the high 90%.
Super activist school principal Keisha Hayles was sent from Red Hills all age to supervise the ‘demolition job’ of closing down the school in 2011.
Staring into the hope filled eyes of the innocent, young children there made her see differently and four years later Padmore Primary has proven its viability but needs much more assistance from the Ministry of Education(MOE) the little it can get from the impoverished community members and, who knows, maybe some in the diaspora.
So remote is the rural district from ‘civilisation’ that there is only one legal (red plate) taxi licensed to make daily trips there from Red Hills Road. Many of the illegal ones (robots) which leave Chancery Street make it to Sterling Castle and if they are empty by then, they turn around and head back down the hill. It’s all about chasing that elusive few hundred dollars.
After Ms. Hayles had decided to bring viability to the school (built in 1938) instead of closure, she inherited a small house left as a legacy by her mother. She sold the house and used three million dollars of her own money to pump into the school. First was a second hand school bus to make the uphill trek to the school in the mornings.
Along those hazardous roads it wasn’t long before the bus, more down and out than up and running, made it to the graveyard. Ms. Hayles knew that many of the poor households some ways down the hill could not fund the taxi fare to make it to school. To her way of thinking, it was all about, ‘get me the child and I and my team will do the rest.’
Super activist as she always is, in a competition to secure a school bus from Toyota Jamaica Limited, Hayles, her small teaching staff and students laid out nothing less than a blitz of a competition and eventually won that bus. And deservedly so.
A few years ago when she invited me to examine the ailing infrastructure of the school premises it was pointed out to me that the actual tar grounds of the school was last paved by the MOE in 1975. Yes, that’s not an error. 1975!
So moved was I as I examined the school kitchen that it led me to a decision to replace my own fridge, all the better to donate the older model I had had for about seven years to the school. Trust me, the one I saw in the kitchen at Padmore Primary was barely limping.
At present the MOE subventions to the school for ancillary matters like keeping the grounds in order, paying the phone bills, paying a worker to keep the bathrooms clean etc. is $77,000 every three months. Looked at another way, that is $6,400 per week, grossly inadequate. Because of that, it is not unusual to visit the school at odd hours and find the principal cleaning the bathrooms.
A week ago when I visited again some tentative steps were being taken to expand the small kitchen. The school, of one principal and seven teachers have worked miracles but there is only so much that can be done. For Ms. Hayles it is a seven days work week and it is more the norm than the exception that some students stay over at her home sometimes for the simple reason that the families cannot afford to find them the basics of food and drink.
“My only hope is the diaspora. I know that in the diaspora there are people who want to help a worthy cause and to give back a little to the country which nurtured them at some early stage of their lives. My appeals to other sources for ongoing assistance have not met with the sort of help that the school needs.
“ When I stare into the eyes of some of these poor children I see future doctors, engineers, lawyers but at the same time I have to be realistic and know that many of them will have their educational growth stunted because the little we have now in the form of infrastructural help can only do so much and no more. It pains me deeply but I still refuse to believe that there is not some way out for this school,” she said.
Thinking people in the surrounding communities have suggested that Ms. Hayles should be given the opportunity to administer both the much larger and better equipped Red Hills all age, and Padmore Primary.
Because of the G-SAT successes at Padmore enrollment has moved from 90 last year to 250 this year. All with the same level of supporting infrastructure. The school is bawling out for help. Two more teachers are needed and so is a playing area that is not hard bitumen that damages the children when they fall.
With her specialist Masters degree Keisha Hayles could, I am certain just walk away from Padmore Primary and find employment in one of the private, name-brand prep schools. Her commitment is however so steadfast that the very thought of it has never entered her mind.
“You cannot as a caring human being stare into the eyes of these innocent children who just yearn to be given a chance at a better shot in life than what their parents had. If Padmore Primary was to close down as you have suggested, that would be it for the district and, many of the children living here and in neighboring districts would simply go to another school maybe two, three days for the week. It would be a disaster,” said the lady who shares the same birth day with National Hero Marcus Garvey.
At the recent graduation the MP for the constituency in which the school falls promised that the terrible roads would be repaired. Last week I shot off an email to the West Rural constituency office of Paul Buchanan seeking a timeline on that promise. There has been no response. No surprise there.
“The physical infrastructure of the school can be expanded to include a few more classrooms,” said Hayles.
Ms. Keisha Hayles
1-876-944-4132 – office number
1-876-313-4439 – cell number
[email protected]
Good morning Met and Metters.. What a blessed lady Miss Hayles is. I pray God’s richest blessing for u Miss Hayles, imagine the type of world we would have if there were more people like her especially at the Ministry of Education.. If she can work such great miracles with the little she has imagine the levels those students would reach if she gets respectable amount of money and other necessary donations..
A lot of times I would love to help financially, but have no way of getting the funds to them. At times I’m thinking of making a go fund me page for Jamaican’s in need so that people abroad can donate and then have funds taken from there to help those in need. But I would need help in terms of having a TRUSTED person in JA verify the stories and pass the funds on.
Because I am willing to help, but how do we and others here help with no way of getting the funds to them.