Henry-Wilson

Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter

A space audit conducted by the Ministry of Education and Youth has revealed that it would cost the Government $44.8 billion to create some 228,800 school spaces at the primary level.

Education Minister Maxine Henry-Wilson made the disclosure on Tuesday in the House of Representatives. She was making a statement on a ministry paper on the report and recommendations of the committee appointed to examine the delay in the publication of the 2006 Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT).

According to Mrs. Henry-Wilson, if the Government were to follow through with the requirements made by the Task Force on Education two years ago, in reference to a reduction in class size and getting rid of the shift system, the sector would need 187,190 spaces at the secondary level.

"Clearly, it is not something that we are going to be able to do immediately," she pointed out.

A space audit conducted by the Task Force on Education had revealed that the education system required an additional 428,941 spaces.

Student-to-teacher ratio

This audit was based on new parameters for the school system, in which the student-to-teacher ratio would be reduced to 25 students to one teacher per class in the high school system, and 30 students to one teacher per class in the primary schools.

On Tuesday, the minister said the ministry would be providing approximately 16,990 new spaces by year-end.

She said that the space audit conducted by the ministry was very comprehensive, and took into account several factors such as choice which, she said, drives the need for additional spaces in the school system.

Other inputs that were considered relate to population movements and shifts. The minister, however, noted a difficulty in getting planning agencies and government bodies to liaise with the ministry in terms of new developments.