Education Ministry to Spend $1.5 Billion in Preparation for New School Year

The Ministry of Education and Youth has dedicated $1.5 billion to bring schools to a state of readiness for the start of the 2007/08 academic year.
The Ministry will also be ensuring that there are adequate school spaces in the various schools across the island.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Education and Youth, Maxine Henry- Wilson, during a press briefing held at the Ministry’s Heroes Circle offices on (July 24).
“We have had upgrading and expansion projects currently being undertaken at several schools island wide, and that will create about 4,000 new spaces between 2007 and 2008,” Mrs. Henry-Wilson said.
She added that continued emphasis will be placed on Region Six, which includes the parishes of St. Catherine and Clarendon where there has been significant growth in the school population. Mrs. Henry Wilson said that some 2,270 new spaces are being projected as a result of infrastructure works which are now at varying stages of development.
“Approximately 5,800 new spaces will be provided through the Primary Education Support Project (PESP) and the Reform of Secondary Education Project (ROSE Phase II),” the Minister said.
She noted that there has always been a concern as to whether there will be adequate spaces for all students who have been successful in the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) and Grade Nine Achievement Test (GNAT).
“We have to ensure that we have an environment which allows for teachers to deliver the curriculum in the differentiated way in which we require. So it means that you have to have larger environments,” she said.