$641M Allocated to Provide Additional Classrooms

The Government will be spending $641 million in its continued thrust to end the shift system in schools by providing additional classrooms over the next financial year.

From the money allocated in the 2017-18 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House, $100 million will also be spent to procure equipment for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) academies.

The ongoing $5 billion Education Transformation Programme, being implemented by the National Education Trust (NET), is enabling the construction of new classrooms to end the overcrowding in the schools.

Expansion projects will take place at five primary schools, seven high schools, and continued work on five high schools; completion of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information and the Mount St. Joseph High School.

Projects carried forward from the last budget, and are set for completion are those at Norman Manley High School, Papine High, Cedric Titus, Sydney Pagon, and Bellevue High.

Expansion work will take place at Exchange Primary, Bryce Primary, Campbell’s Castle Primary, Dias Primary and Infant, and Mandeville Primary and Junior High Schools.

Construction of classrooms will also take place during the new financial year at: Innswood High, Muschett High, Pembroke Hall, Spanish Town High, and Eltham High Schools.