Shift system to go - 429,000 more spaces required for students
published: Saturday February 4, 2006
Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter
THE GOVERNMENT has announced that the country must have 428,941 additional spaces to satisfy its education needs at the primary and high school levels, as well as to reduce overcrowding in schools.
During his contribution to the State of the Nation debate in the Senate yesterday, Noel Monteith, State Minister for Education, also placed a two-year time frame on the table for the Government to eliminate the school shift system.
Senator Monteith said yesterday that the number of school spaces needed was derived from an audit conducted by the Task force on Education late last year.
He said the audit was based on new parameters for the school system, in which the student to teacher ratio would be reduced to 25 students per class in the high schools and 30 per class in the primary schools.
Currently, an average class size is 45 per class in the high schools and 35 per class in the primary schools.
Senator Monteith said that under the new parameters as proposed by the task force, 408 new schools would be required.
He said six parishes would each need from 25 to 81 new schools.
Number of schools required in:
Kingston and St. Andrew 81
St. Catherine 83
Clarendon 50
St. James 35
St. Ann 25
Senator Monteith said the Government would, in the meantime, be answering the call for the elimination of the shift system, which was one of the recommendations put forward by the task force.
"We have had the appeal to get rid of the shift system ... and we are committed to that," he said.
"There is no easy way about that, but to eliminate the shift system by 2008, we will need 24,000 spaces at the primary level and 42,000 spaces at the high school level," he explained.
NEW SPACES BY 2007
Senator Monteith said the Government would be providing 14,000 new school spaces by September 2007.
He said seven prototype schools have already been completed and are in use while 13 schools are now being expanded and eight new ones are to be started.
The task force has also indicated that the shift system, which was designed to alleviate the capacity problem in the short run, has resulted in reduced teaching time for whole-day schools.
published: Saturday February 4, 2006
Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter
THE GOVERNMENT has announced that the country must have 428,941 additional spaces to satisfy its education needs at the primary and high school levels, as well as to reduce overcrowding in schools.
During his contribution to the State of the Nation debate in the Senate yesterday, Noel Monteith, State Minister for Education, also placed a two-year time frame on the table for the Government to eliminate the school shift system.
Senator Monteith said yesterday that the number of school spaces needed was derived from an audit conducted by the Task force on Education late last year.
He said the audit was based on new parameters for the school system, in which the student to teacher ratio would be reduced to 25 students per class in the high schools and 30 per class in the primary schools.
Currently, an average class size is 45 per class in the high schools and 35 per class in the primary schools.
Senator Monteith said that under the new parameters as proposed by the task force, 408 new schools would be required.
He said six parishes would each need from 25 to 81 new schools.
Number of schools required in:
Kingston and St. Andrew 81
St. Catherine 83
Clarendon 50
St. James 35
St. Ann 25
Senator Monteith said the Government would, in the meantime, be answering the call for the elimination of the shift system, which was one of the recommendations put forward by the task force.
"We have had the appeal to get rid of the shift system ... and we are committed to that," he said.
"There is no easy way about that, but to eliminate the shift system by 2008, we will need 24,000 spaces at the primary level and 42,000 spaces at the high school level," he explained.
NEW SPACES BY 2007
Senator Monteith said the Government would be providing 14,000 new school spaces by September 2007.
He said seven prototype schools have already been completed and are in use while 13 schools are now being expanded and eight new ones are to be started.
The task force has also indicated that the shift system, which was designed to alleviate the capacity problem in the short run, has resulted in reduced teaching time for whole-day schools.
