Education Ministry Provides 40,000 Pieces of New Furniture For Schools

Education Minister, Hon. Rev. Ronald Thwaites, says the Ministry provided 40,000 pieces of new furniture for schools, at the start of the academic year, in September.

The Minister also noted that two weeks ago, the Ministry had to find an additional $25,000 million to supply furniture to schools, adding that arrangements have been made with the HEART Trust and other schools to assist in repairing broken furniture.

Rev. Thwaites was speaking at the annual meeting of the Association of Principals and Vice Principals at the Gran Bahai Principe Hotel, in St. Ann, on October 16.

“The Ministry is arranging for schools that have damaged furniture, either to repair them themselves or to select certain schools and HEART Institutes in order to extend the life of the capital that we have already expended,” the Minister said.

“What we have found is that there are thousands of units of furniture which have been condemned and exist in piles at the back of some of our primary and high schools which can be rehabilitated. Principals and Vice Principals, we must do more with what we have,” Rev. Thwaites urged.

The Minister is also calling for better monitoring from school officials regarding the use of school furniture to prevent abuse.

“This becomes a matter of the internal discipline of each school, in order to ensure that desks are not defaced or damaged…and where excessive demands have to be made for replacement. The country simply cannot afford, either in the education sector or in the broader scope of national life, to purchase again and again, that which ought to last us longer,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Minister thanked teachers for their understanding as the Ministry works through a number of challenges, and school leaders for their efforts in ensuring that the 2015/16 academic year started on a smooth note.

He said this was achieved despite the challenges posed due to the shortage of water, the outbreak of the hand, foot and mouth disease as well as the shortage of furniture in some schools.