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Principals in four parishes would be ready to resume face-to-face classes next month, but an overwhelming majority of them said they do not have enough space to accommodate all students returning to school at the same time.In light of that, the educators from St Ann, St Mary, St Catherine, and Clarendon expect Government to continue the blended learning approach, involving both online and face-to-face classes.Prime Minister Andrew Holness had announced over a week ago that schools may reopen in mid-September, depending on the situation regarding the novel coronavirus.However, late last week, after the Government received a donation of 204,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines from the United States, which will be used to vaccinate students 12 years and older, Education Minister Fayval Williams said that schools will reopen on September 1 and vaccinated students will be eligible immediately for face-to-face classes. However, those who are unvaccinated will have join classes online until they receive the jab.The country is now grappling with a third wave of the virus which, in March last year, forced schools to scrap face-to-face classes and resort to online lessons. Since then, only students preparing for national and regional exams were allowed back on public school campuses for face-to-face classes.The Government also carried out a face-to-face pilot programme in 17 schools, including Moneague Primary and Junior High in St Ann."What we did was to adopt a rotational approach so our classes were basically split in two. Half of the students would come in on Mondays and Wednesdays, and the second half would come in on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We would alternate Fridays... We would not be able to accommodate our over 300 students all at once," Principal Patricia Allen told the Jamaica Observer.Allen added that the format proved successful, and can be adopted going forward. According to her, Moneague Primary was able to cover the revised curriculum under the pilot, and to also reach about 85 per cent of its students.Another St Ann school that was involved in the pilot programme is Steer Town Primary and Junior High where administrators intend to have grades five and six students at school if the Government gives the go-ahead."We would not be able to accommodate all students at once," said Principal Michelle White-Guy. "Our plan is to have grades four to six on the school compound on a daily basis, and then we can phase in grade one to three. We would do it like a rotation."Regarding the physical plant, White-Guy disclosed that preparation is almost complete. "We are in preparation mode - almost finished, but we are always ready for school," she said.In neighbouring St Mary, vice-principal of Carron Hall High Marcia Johnson said the school is concerned about slow registration and is in need of more funds to be fully ready."We are still awaiting some disbursement of funding to finalise our preparation. But apart from that, we are more or less on target... The challenge we are having though is the slow response of parents doing registration and so on. We are not actually 100 per cent certain how many parents would send out their kids," Johnson said.She added that the school, which has a population of about 400 students, would not be able to accommodate full resumption of face-to-face classes."We would have to do some amount of blending and maybe do day-on and day-off because we don't have accommodation to facilitate every student on plant at the same time with the protocols in place," she explained.Another school in St Mary, Oracabessa Primary, also said it will not be able to facilitate all students at once if face-to-face learning resumes."It wouldn't be smart to have everybody [at school at the same time] because we are a large population. That would not be possible," said Principal Gregory Davis.According to him, the ideal plan is to have some of the school's 740 students participate in face-to-face classes while others continue online learning.He proposed that face-to-face classes be streamed live to students learning remotely. But he lamented that Oracabessa Primary does not have proper Internet service to facilitate that."We would prefer to have had better Internet connectivity. That is a serious challenge. Even though we have Internet, access points throughout the entire campus are a real challenge," Davis said. He urged the telecommunications companies, as well as Government, to invest more in technology.He also implored Government to fulfil its promise to provide students with tablets. "Only grades four to six already got their tablets; students in grades one to three have not gotten any... You have a year that you could have done that and up to now you don't have that done. You don't want September to come and that is a big issue again," Davis added.Principal of Victoria Primary School in Linstead, St Catherine, Annette Steele, stated that she has enough space to accommodate all students at the same time for face-to-face classes. But she is prepared to work with whatever format the education ministry stipulates.The school has 12 classrooms and 300 students on roll, Steele said."Grades one to three would have about 25 students per class, while grades four to six have 30 on average. So we would be able to accommodate them," she told the Sunday Observer."Parents and other family members have been asking me if I think school will resume for September. I [told them] it is my desire because the children are really suffering [at home]," Steele said.Administrators at another school in Linstead, Charlemont High, stated that, with the Government's approval, it would ensure Grade 11 students are always at school preparing for external exams.Other grades would be rotated if face-to-face classes are allowed to resume, said Jennifer Gidden, vice-principal of academics."We were making plans last school year about how we were going to go about having school, and we did not get a chance to experiment with them. So we are looking forward to trying the plans that we have," she told the Sunday Observer.While underscoring the importance of Charlemont High also having improved Internet access, Gidden expressed optimism that the education ministry will soon address that challenge."We currently don't have enough Internet, but we are trying," she said.In Clarendon, there were mixed reactions.Kellits Primary School Principal Rhynee McKay-Bennett stated that the school would be ready for the resumption of limited face-to-face classes."We were ready when we were given the go-ahead to resume last school year. We got the go-ahead from the Ministry of Health in terms of the [the school] plant, and I think our teachers are mentally ready," she said. "We know all of our students won't be able to come back at once because we have a big population. We probably will have to put them in groups or on shifts or [use a] blended mode," she said.McKay-Bennett's biggest concern is whether students will be able to travel safely."Most of them will have to use public transportation and, if the virus escalates, they run a higher risk of taking it in to us. That is the only fear that we have in terms of resumption [of face-to-face classes]... We know we can get the students to follow the protocols and so on at school," the principal said.Meanwhile, Principal of Denbigh High School Janice Julal said while they are ready for face-to-face they also have a plan in place for a blended approach."In previous years, we were certain of what reopening would look like. Now, there is great uncertainty as we don't know which direction the pandemic will go. However, we have done all that we need to have our stakeholders ready for a resumption, whether face-to-face or online," she said. "For example, our incoming PEP students have collected packages; have received book lists and will do registration next week. We have created a WhatsApp group for the new parents and this has enabled them to know what to do at every step of the process as their children enter a new school. Existing parents are kept abreast of next steps via individual class WhatsApp groups. Our parents know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are ready to keep school regardless of the mode of delivery," she said.Meanwhile at Foga High School, Principal Orrett Wallace said they are ready but he is concerned about a lack of space. "Some students who deferred the CSEC exams, we are wondering where we're gonna place them. Some students, like first-formers, have not been in school from last year September. They did not turn up. We have parents coming in to say that they did not know that school was keeping and all kinds of excuses. So, I'm trying to accommodate all of these parents to see how best we can deal with them just because of the students," he said.- Quade Thompson contributed to this story.