Holness
The Government is to revive plans to construct a school in Portmore, St. Catherine.
It will replace the school which was slated for construction in Dunbeholden in that parish.
Andrew Holness, Minister of Education, made the disclosure of plans to construct the school at the recent post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.
" … A church in Gregory Park is willing to provide the Ministry of Education with lands on which to develop a school complex. It is in the initial phases. I don't want to say too much about it until we have finalised it. But just to assure the nation that we have not given up on providing space in Region 6," he said.
The Dunbeholden school should have accommodated 250 students but was put on hold based on advice from the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA).
According to NEPA, the school would have been built near a water source, which it did not want disturbed.
Clarendon lands identified
Meanwhile, the minister said lands have already been identified in Clarendon to begin the construction of a high school in Sandy Bay.
The previous government had implemented a Start-a-School Programme, which was to provide some 1,200 school spaces. These spaces were to come from Sandy Bay, Dunbeholden and Foga Road, Clarendon.
Meanwhile, Mr. Holness announced that Cabinet had approved contracts for the expansion of several schools in the parishes of St. Thomas and western Jamaica.
Mr. Holness said a contract valued at $15.6 million was awarded for the expansion of Morant Bay High School in St. Thomas where three additional classrooms would be provided.
In western Jamaica, the Bluefields Primary School is to be upgraded to a high school at a cost of more than $304 million. The project will see the school having two additional blocks of classrooms.
Mr. Holness said a replacement school would also be built at Springfield, St. James, to host 630 students.
The project will cost a little more than $198 million. The projects are being funded by the Education Transformation Project.
