By Monique Hepburn, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
THE NEW facility which will house the Frome Technical High School in Westmoreland is on target for official transfer by February, according to Marlon Grenion, Regional Building Officer in the Ministry of Education.
"Frome Technical as well as several other schools are on target for completion in 2004. The other schools which are in St. James are Success Primary, Irwin High and Primary Schools", Mr. Grenion said in an interview with The Gleaner.
The construction of the new Frome facility is the only replacement school in the North West Jamaica Schools Programme.
Neville Vicars, vice principal of Frome Technical, confirmed that members of staff began a series of site visits to the new facility on Monday and that the removal of equipment will begin by the end of January.
STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY
"Ministry of Education engineers have declared that the structural integrity of the present building cannot be guaranteed. It is dilapidated. The new facility is located approximately one mile from our current location. It will house the same number of classrooms", Mr. Vicars explained Tuesday.
"As soon as equipment are in place, students will be transferred to the new facility which we estimate will take place by the end of February," he said.
Current enrolment at the school is 1,450 students. Nineteen classrooms cater to two shifts. Mr. Grenion further added that under the North West Jamaica Schools Programme, Frome Technical is one of 17 to be constructed at a cost of $3.5 billion.
The programme provides for the construction of the new school facilities in St. James, Trelawny, Hanover, and Westmoreland and will provide 16,000 new spaces for students.
