IN THE wake of explosive islandwide protests on Tuesday, relative calm returned to Jamaica yesterday as most schools reopened their doors amid reports of anaemic student turnouts because of sporadic flare-ups of violence and roadblocks in some areas.
Claudette Cope, principal of Excelsior Primary School in Kingston, said that classes resumed yesterday morning but with only 60 per cent of 950 students. While the principal was speaking with The Gleaner about 11 a.m yesterday, gunshots were being fired.
The poor turnout was mirrored at the Excelsior High School on Mountain View Avenue, where 75 per cent of the grade seven students showed for orientation, while at the Mountain View Primary School, only half of the students enrolled turned out for classes.
ISLANDWIDE PROTEST
On Tuesday schools were forced to send children home because of an islandwide protest led by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).
As the country returned to some degree of normality, president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), Horace Peterkin, believes that protests on the scale of Tuesday's lock-down could have a debilitating effect on the local tourist trade.
Mr. Peterkin's concern comes against the background of the 'we-will-do-it-again' promise by Opposition Leader Bruce Golding if the Government does not accede to the party's demand to address price hikes.
"I don't think that it (Tuesday's protest) has enough distraction to be reported overseas in any big way, but if it is something that is repeated then you are going to get some attention," Mr. Peterkin said. "Our goal is to try to make sure that we do not have this kind of activity all the time because stuff like that is inimical to the tourism industry."
