Principal paints grim picture of space shortage at St. Ann school

 

One school administrator is painting a grim picture of space shortage at a St. Ann institution just days ahead of the new school year.

 

Dwayne Mulgrave, Principal at Discovery Bay High School, says there is no classroom space to house the 50 grade seven students placed at the institution following the Primary Exit Profile exams.

 

Added to that, there is no space for the cohort matriculating to second form.

 

This is despite Education Minister Fayval Williams stating that classrooms were being completed when she visited the institution.

 

But Mr. Mulgrave has given a different account. 

 

"We are still in the pipelines where that is concerned, and the area that is to be completed was actually constructed by the school and the ministry would have come in to take over that project and nothing has happened on that project either, so we are out on a limb with both projects. So it is true that we have nowhere to put children Monday morning," he asserted.  

 

With school set to reopen on September 4, the principal said stakeholders are yet to find a solution to the issue but discussions with the Ministry of Education are ongoing. 

 

"I'm not able to give a definitive answer with regard to where they will be put or where they will be placed because I have never felt so disarmed since I've been a principal. I've never been in this position before where I literally have nowhere for the children to go. I'm at a loss," the principal lamented Wednesday on TVJ's All Angles. 

 

"I can't believe we are in this position having lobbied so hard. We have had all kinds of meetings and we are always in the pipelines. It is always just a matter of 'Okay, we are having that discussion. We are treating with that procurement process' and so on. We have to do better for Jamaica's children," he pleaded. 

 

Mr. Mulgrave argued that administrators cannot continue to make excuses for the lack of provision in education, as parents are demanding an explanation. 

 

"It has been happening for years and I don't know what to tell the parents, and perhaps the Ministry of Education will need to address these parents who have become very antsy and they are asking that somebody come and talk to them because they are most dissatisfied with this precarious position."

 

Jamaica Teachers' Association (JTA) president Leighton Johnson has also taken the Ministry of Education to task over what he calls the lack of planning for institutions.