Some Schools to be Upgraded Under Basic Needs Trust Fund Project

Several schools across the island are to benefit from upgrading works this fiscal year under the Basic Needs Trust Fund project.

These include the Christiana Moravian Primary and Mandeville Primary in Manchester, Discovery Bay All-Age and Ocho Rios Primary in St. Ann, Old Harbour Primary and Brown’s Hall Primary in St. Catherine, Braes River Primary in St. Elizabeth, and May Pen School of Special Education, in Clarendon.

This is to be carried out with a sum of $234 million allocated in the 2017/18 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives.

The money will also be used to complete the rehabilitation of three roads: Roper Road, Belvedere Rural Feeder Road, and Haddington to New Milns Road.

Some of the money will also go towards the completion of the rehabilitation and expansion of the Trenail District Water Supply and Chepstowe Domestic Water Supply.

The rest will be used for the completion of all human resource development and training projects dealing with water and sanitation hygiene; maintenance; literacy and numeracy; youth at risk; and gender equality.

The objective of the Basic Needs Trust Fund project is to reduce poverty and vulnerability through enhanced access to basic and social infrastructure and human resource development services.

This will be achieved in three main sectors: Basic Community Access and Drainage Enhancement, Education and Human Resource Development, and Water and Sanitation Systems Enhancement.

It is being implemented by the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) with funding from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Government of Jamaica.

Achievement under the project up to December 2016 was the award of all contracts for school expansion, road rehabilitation, water-systems rehabilitation and expansion.

Originally slated to run from February, 2013 to December, 2016, the project is scheduled to end in December, 2017.