Director of Education Marcellus Taylor said the government would assist students who were displaced by Hurricane Dorian and want to attend schools on other Family Islands where they have relatives. 

While the Ministry of Education is assessing how it will move forward with opening schools as soon as possible in Abaco and Grand Bahama, Taylor believes the government is more concerned about housing. 

During Wednesday’s interview, Taylor noted that when school opens, the first order of business will be to provide counseling for students.

“In the beginning, we would want to suspend to some degree the usual curriculum and deal with their psychological, emotional side to assure, you know, things will get better and help them deal with whatever trauma or anxiety that they may have because the pre-condition for learning is people have to be emotionally satisfied.  People have to be fed, clothed, all these things are important,” Taylor said.

“The counseling that is provided will help them come to grips with the experiences that they’ve had and also trying to help them understand how they must move forward with confidence and so on.

“The grief counseling will also be a part of it. We have school psychologists. We have guidance counselors and we have others who are at our disposal.”

He was unable to say if displaced students without a relative will be sent to a school in New Providence. 

A rumour on social media claimed that Florida was accepting affected Bahamian families to attend schools in the U.S. 

However, The Bahama Journal reached out to Minister of Education Jeffrey Lloyd, who said he has no knowledge about the claim.