-Photo by JIS
Minister of Education and Youth, Maxine Henry-Wilson, greets construction workers on the site of the José Marti Technical High School in St. Catherine during a tour of the institution last Tuesday.

Gareth Manning and Daraine Luton, Sunday Gleaner Reporters

While Government is spending millions of dollars to expand some of the nation's primary and secondary schools, some school administrators say they do not have the infrastructure to support a larger population of students. At least one primary school will have to seek accommodation in a church hall at the start of the new school year.

At two high schools in St. Catherine, where the Ministry of Education is constructing several additional classrooms and will be providing furniture for them, the extra influx of students will add pressure to their already limited resources.

Limited facilities

Principal of José Marti Technical High School in Spanish Town, Bevar Moodie, says the school does not have enough bathrooms, canteen and laboratory facilities to support the over 500 new students coming in September. He says the school needs an entire block of bathrooms to make all its students comfortable, and currently only the grades 10 and 11 blocks have such facilities.

On top of that, there is only one canteen that operates on two shifts for the over 1,200 students who attend the high school currently. Adding over 500 new students to this means the canteen will cater to nearly 1,800 students a day.

"For the first lunch time, it is over 900 students, and for the second lunch time it is going to be some 800 students, so there is going to be some challenge. To feed that number of students in such a short time is just not going to happen at all," he said.

He added that the extra classrooms might not be ready for the first three weeks of September and this might cause them to reduce attendance for some days.

"We might have to have a grade sitting out a day or two on some days for the first three weeks of school. That might be necessary. The ministry has not signed off on that yet, but that's the kind of contingency we are looking at," Mr Moodie told The Sunday Gleaner. He said if the school is not allowed to lessen attendance during the first three weeks, then it may have to resort to putting some students under tents and making space in two of its lecture theatres.

Temporary facilities

School officials at Charlemont High School, also in St. Catherine, say they are expecting similar problems in the next school year, which is only three weeks away. Eight new classrooms have been built here, but four are temporary facilities that leak when it rains.

Vice-principal at the school, Jennifer Gidden, said the 280 new students may add pressure to the small staff population there and other infrastructure, particularly canteen and lab facilities.

The school is short-staffed, needing teachers in areas of mathematics, agriculture, Spanish and social studies. But much of that is being solved steadily, Ms. Gidden says. "WE are getting through, it's just that for the maths department, we don't have enough sessions to hire a teacher. We are trying to get there," she reported.

There is only one tuck shop for over 1,300 students and so like Jose Marti Technical, the canteen has to be operated on a shift system. The school is currently seeking funding to build a second one, but that might not materialise for another three years.

Laboratory space is also woefully inadequate, Ms. Gidden explains, as grades seven to nine have to be excluded from the lab. On top of that, the school lacks an industrial arts laboratory for the teaching of woodwork and craft.

Threat to students

Meanwhile, Middlesex Primary School in Hanover will have to seek accommodation in the hall of a nearby church, due to repairs to its major building. The building has been deteriorating due to a termite infestation and could pose a threat to students and staff.

In confirming this situation, Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, Noel Monteith, said work had already begun, but might not be completed until January 2007.

Reacting to the infrastructure concerns raised by the secondary schools, he said: "We do expect an increase in the school population to naturally have some impact on those things, such as bathroom facilities and others, but those are things that will have to be addressed at a later date of the project."

Making room for learning