Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter

The Ministry of Education on Thursday gave the assurance that the 480 grades seven and nine José Marti High School students who have been out of school since the start of the new academic year, will begin classes on Monday.

The students were forced to stay at home since the reopening of school because the prototype classrooms, which were to accommodate them, are still not complete.

"The Ministry of Education takes very seriously the issue of all children being in school. We are not pleased when we see as many as 480 students not in school - two weeks since the beginning of the school year," Andrew Holness, minister of education told reporters Thursday following a tour of the institution.

The delay was blamed on Hurricane Dean and contractor overload.

"I will give the nation an assurance that we will be looking at that very seriously. It cannot be that contractor overload affects the delivery date of important things such as classrooms for children," Mr. Holness said.

Finishing touches

When The Gleaner visited the St. Catherine-based institution on Thursday, workmen were seen painting doors and doing the finishing touches. Furniture was also being delivered for the classrooms.

This is not the first time some students at Jose` Marti were forced to stay at home after the start of the new school year. Last year some 600 grades seven to nine students were placed on a staggered system, some attending classes twice per week because the classrooms which were to house them were not ready.

"I have engaged in a process of identifying where the breakdown took place and who were the persons responsible and we are going to meet to find out the exact reason as to why there was a breakdown," said Mr. Holness.

He added: "We have to employ good management strategies to ensure that when we set deadlines, they are met".

petrina.francis@gleanerjm.com