Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter

A National Education Trust (NET) is to be established by June 2009 to secure funding for the building of public schools across the island, according to Andrew Holness, minister of education.

Holness, during his contribution to the Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, said the infrastructure requirements to support a transformed education system were overwhelming.

He noted there were 116 schools on the shift system and it was estimated that it would require 30 new schools of 30 classrooms at an estimated cost of US$185 million ($13 billion) to remove 45 secondary schools from the shift system.

Removing shift system

The education minister also said it would require approximately US$122 million ($8.6 billion) to remove the primary level schools from the shift system. He said this would require the building of an estimated 22 new schools and some 90 classrooms.

Holness said these figures did not include the other institutions the Government needed to build to provide access to every Jamaican child at an average teacher-pupil ratio of 1:30.

The education minister told the House that the original transformation plan did not contemplate a formal institutional structure to deal with infrastructure development.

Compatibility

He noted that, while the maintenance function of schools would be passed on to the Regional Education Authorities, the building of schools would not be best managed at the regional level and would not be compatible with a policy-focused ministry.

The education minister said the World Bank was to assist the ministry in establishing the Trust.

"I thought it important to have the World Bank involved in the establishment of the Trust from the outset, so we could build into the Trust the standards of governance, accountability and management systems endorsed by the Bank as an institution funding agency," Holness said.

He noted that preliminary work had begun and the World Bank had indicated its willingness to provide technical assistance and fund the operation of the Trust for the first year, subject to further discussion.

Holness said the core responsibility of the NET will be to secure and manage an endowment fund from which capital educational projects would be financed.

The Endowment Fund would be supported from:

The National Consolidated Fund

Proceeds from casino tax

Local and international philanthropy

Local and internationally sourced loans

Grants from international partners

Grants from government programmes, such as the CHASE Fund.

petrina.francis@gleanerjm.com