Education Trust to Raise US$ 100 Million for School Building Project

Minister of Education, Andrew Holness, said the Ministry plans to raise US$100 million to build 100 schools in the next five years and will be establishing a National Education Trust to help achieve this goal.
Speaking at a ceremony on Wednesday (March 19) to officially open the refurbished and upgraded Braeton Primary and Junior High School in Portmore, St. Catherine, Minister Holness said he will be seeking the support of the Jamaican Diaspora in the effort.
“Already, I’ve met with the Diaspora in the United Kingdom and I’ve met with Jamaicans, who are fairly substantial people, who would want to contribute but want to see the infrastructure to manage the fund.”
According to the Education Minister, the trust will act as a “point of co-ordination for the many wishes of charity, philanthropy and goodwill, which come from those living overseas and those locally, who would want to give back something to the education system here in Jamaica”.
In the meantime, the school refurbishing project was completed under the Ministry’s Critically Needed Secondary School Places Project and the Reform of Secondary Education (ROSE 2).
The scope of work included the overhaul of the roof of the school; painting of approximately 80 per cent of the school; refurbishing the canteen; establishing a reading room, a computer laboratory and a second staff room; building two new blocks of classrooms; partitioning the grade nine block; installing white boards in all classrooms; and providing 17 computers for the laboratory, the vice principals office, the reading room, the library, the staff rooms and the grade 10 classroom. National Commercial Bank donated a computer for the principal’s office.