New Schools Opened: Others Expanded

Minister of Education and Youth, Maxine Henry Wilson, last year officially opened five new schools under the North Western Schools Programme in the parish of St. James. The schools were Green Pond High, Primary and Basic schools and Irwin High and Primary.  

            The North Western Schools Programme, which is funded by the Education Transformation Project, involves the construction of 17 schools throughout western Jamaica in the parishes of Trelawny, St. James, Hanover and Westmoreland, at a cost of $3.5 billion.

            Of the 17 schools, 12 have already been completed to include a new plant for Frome Technical High in Westmoreland; Holland Primary, Hague Basic and Primary in Trelawny, and Lucea Basic School in Hanover. Works are being undertaken at Hopewell High, Orange Bay High and Bethel Basic schools. 

School Expansion

            The Ministry also undertook expansion works in secondary schools across the island, in order to accommodate more students at that level.

            As such, the Ministry signed contracts amounting to $58 million in order to undertake expansion works at the Jose Marti and York Castle High Schools in St. Catherine and St. Ann, respectively.

            The contract for York Castle High valued at $25 million was awarded to Alfrasure Structures and Roofing Limited. Works being undertaken at the school include construction of a two-storey concrete building comprising five classrooms, staff room, scouts’ office and bathroom facilities.

            Matrix Engineering Limited was awarded the contract to undertake the expansion of Jose Marti Technical High at a cost of $33.2 million. The project involves the construction of 17 new classrooms, a reading and science laboratory, bathrooms, kitchen, canteen and an administrative room.

            The school, which has an enrollment of 1,267 students, will accommodate another 650, when the project is completed.

            Speaking with JIS News, Minister Henry Wilson noted that on completion, the school plant would also house a ‘traditional’ high school.

            “Because of the number of students we’re going to be hosting at Jose

 Marti and the fact that we’re now making it a traditional high school with grades 7 to 9, we’re looking at creating two separate facilities and these will come with all the requisite systems of support,” she noted.

            Stating that the move was an innovation, she said that the Ministry would be looking at the process to see exactly what support systems would be required. 

            She said the Ministry was aware of the need for more spaces in some schools and that had some influence on the decision to operate two separate schools on the Jose Marti campus.      Claude Stewart, School Facilities and Infrastructure Workstream Lead within the Education Transformation Project, explained that the works being undertaken at York Castle High would see the creation of 200 additional spaces.  “The school currently has an enrollment of 1,226, so this will just be the beginning of reducing the overcrowding at York Castle,” he informed.