The Ministry of Education is seeking an additional $1.7 billion during the current fiscal year to construct six new schools. The new schools are to be completed in time for the start of the 2008/2009 academic year.

In anticipation of the development, Education Minister Andrew Holness is predicting that there will not be a repeat of the "space problem" the ministry has been having over the past four years in the placement of children into high schools through the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT).

The additional funds that are being sought fall under the infrastructure component of the Education Transformation Programme.

Mr. Holness disclosed at yesterday's post-Cabinet press briefing that the $5 billion initially allocated from the National Housing Trust for the Transformation Programme had been exhausted.

Favourably received

The request had been favourably received by Cabinet, he said, adding that he had been authorised to pursue the matter further with the Ministry of Finance, which will seek to identify the funds.

Encouraged by Cabinet's response, Mr. Holness, just three months in the job, sought to assure the nation: "We are going to be moving very quickly on that to ensure that come September 2008, we don't have the space problem we've been having now for the past four years."

The Education Transformation Programme, born out of a bi-partisan agreement to facilitate a major leap forward for the country's education system, anticipates improvements in a number of key areas, including infrastructural upgrades and curriculum changes.

Some of these goals include ending the double-shift system where it exists, and bringing the teacher-pupil ratio down from 45:1 to 35:1.

Progress was being made in these areas, the minister said, pointing out that two schools had already been taken off the shift system, with the creation of additional space.

According to official estimates, however, full transformation is still a long way off. The primary-school system is said to require more than 91,000 spaces, while another 228,000 spaces would be required to end the shift system in secondary schools.

Regarding the long-term financing of the education system, Mr. Holness disclosed that the Government was pursuing the establishment of an education trust fund.