Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter

HENRY-WILSON

The Ministry of Education and Youth is yet to say when expansion will begin on the three Portmore schools, which are to accommodate some 250 Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) students who were reassigned to them because construction on their new school has been put on hold.

The ministry said last week that the schools - Waterford High, Ascot High and Greater Portmore High - would be expanded to accommodate the students. But three months before the new term is schedule to begin, the Ministry of Education has not given a time frame for the work to start.

Procurement process

"There is a procurement process we have to go through," Maxine Henry-Wilson, Minister of Education and Youth, told The Gleaner yesterday. However, she was unable to say when this process would be completed. "But our aim is to help students to be comfortably accommodated," she said.

The ministry last Thursday reported that the GSAT students were reassigned because the proposed site in Dunbeholden, St. Catherine, was put on hold based on advice from the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA). Mrs. Henry-Wilson explained that this advice was given because the school was to be built near a water source, which NEPA does not want disturbed. She noted that discussions will continue with the agency.

Meanwhile, Jamaica Labour Party candidate for South East St. Catherine, Senator Arthur Williams, said he has received numerous complaints from distressed parents whose children were placed at "the non-existent Dunbeholden High School".

The senator urged the Ministry of Education to convene a meeting with the parents and advise them of the details of the reassignments. However, the ministry said all parents received letters, informing them of the schools their children have been reassigned to.

"Up to now I am still upset. How can you send my child to a school that is not yet built?" one concerned parent whose son has now been reassigned to Waterford High, lamented to The Gleaner yesterday.

The mother said her son received good scores and his five choices were Ardenne, St. George's College, Campion College, Kingston College and Wolmer's High School for Boys.

email: petrina.francis@gleanerjm.com