Most Schools in Manchester and St. Elizabeth Ready for New Term

With only two days before the start of the new school year, the region five office of the Ministry of Education and Youth has reported that most schools in Manchester and St. Elizabeth were ready to accommodate students.
Regional Director of Region 5, Rueben Grey, told JIS News that 85 per cent of schools were prepared for the new term, noting that a number of institutions had benefited from extensive repairs and refurbishing.
He informed that while “most principals are in place and teachers have been appointed,” when the term begins “we may discover that there might be schools that require more teachers because of the number of students that they have”.
In addition to undertaking repairs and hiring staff, Mr. Grey informed that grants have been disbursed for the school feeding programme, and furniture and textbooks supplied to schools.
He told JIS News that, “we will continue to look at infrastructure and where there is need for minor repairs we will continue in that regard”, adding that “we are working continuously to ensure that all students are in school”. The Regional Director has advised that parents, who have not provided birth certificates to the respective schools, to do so as soon as possible, to ensure that their children were registered for the new term.
Meanwhile, principals of a number of schools in the region have express satisfaction with the level of preparedness for the new term.
In addition to the general repairs, staff also benefited from development workshops and meetings. Work will continue at a few schools on the weekend.