Many high schools across Jamaica are struggling to manage a growing student population, with 65 of the 173 schools exceeding their intended capacity. This overcrowding is leading to significant challenges, including strained resources, inadequate facilities, and limited classroom space. Schools like Mile Gully High are especially hard-hit, accommodating far more students than they were designed for, which impacts both teaching and learning environments. 

Overpopulation hits 65 High Schools 

Resources stretched, quality affected

Jamaica Gleaner/8 Dec 2024/Jovan Johnson Senior Staff Reporter 

SIXTY-FIVE OF Jamaica’s 173 high schools are overpopulated, raising concerns about teaching quality, learning conditions, and resource availability in institutions accommodating more students than their designed capacity.

It further highlights the enrolment crisis impacting the local education sector, particularly at the primary school level where 604 of the island’s 732 primary schools are under capacity due to declining student numbers.

Overpopulation in schools occurs when student enrolment exceeds the school’s designated capacity.

The 173 high schools provided a total space count of 195,080, of which 186,304 were occupied last school year. The overpopulation issue, however, is highlighted in the 65 schools, 17 of which operate on a shift system.

The 65 schools together offered 73,145 seats but registered 89,974 students. The shift schools accounted for 19,110 spaces and 24,675 students.

Total government funding for the 17 shift schools last school year was approximately $5.7 billion, with the average per-student support at almost $240,000, falling short of the national average of $320,844, according to the ministry’s funding data.

Data from the ministry highlights some of the worst-hit whole-day schools based on student enrolment exceeding their intended capacity. Mile Gully High in Manchester, for instance, was built for 400 students but had 585 enrolled last year. Similarly, Anchovy High in St James recorded 1,711 students, surpassing its 1,200-seat capacity, and St Mary High exceeded its 1,200-capacity by 486 students. Other affected schools include Rusea’s High in Hanover, with 1,633 students in a space designed for 1,200, and Edwin Allen High in Clarendon, which enrolled 2,157 students in a school built for 1,600.

Several of the institutions are traditional schools – institutions sought after for their history of academic success. The others are non-traditional schools, which typically battle greater challenges with resources and academics.

Among the traditional schools are Munro College, Titchfield High, Wolmer’s Girls’ School, Campion College, Glenmuir High, Manchester High, and Westwood High.

The situation at Mile Gully High – a whole-day non-traditional school – is complex, argued principal Christopher Thyme, who is in his sixth year as headmaster of the institution, located in northwestern Manchester.

The school, with around 570 students and 69 staff, including 45 teachers, struggles to provide adequate facilities.

“The school is not built for a high school and that is really the challenge. Many of the amenities available to our children are just not at the standard that they should be,” he told The Sunday Gleaner.

“We have one lab and the space is about 12ft by about 18ft, a very small lab – the one science lab that we have. The majority of our science classes can’t be held in the [lab]. Children have to remain in their classrooms ... . The classroom situation, the staffroom situation, the admin office, those are in need of serious upgrades. Container buildings are where we have our offices,” he explained.

BELOW-GRADE-LEVEL READING

Thyme noted that the resource shortages are particularly pressing, especially considering the efforts required to improve the reading abilities of students, who are often placed at Mile Gully High with belowgrade-level reading skills.

Last year, the average grade seven student was reading at the grade three level.

Thyme said that many of the 109 students who started grade seven in September this year entered the school reading at grade four level.

These findings align with the 2021 Patterson Report, which noted that over a third of students complete primary school without meeting the proficiency standards for language arts. The report called for an overhaul of the education system, which the ministry is addressing through the TREND (Transforming Education for National Development) programme.

Successive governments have promised to build a new school plant for Mile Gully High, and Thyme is hopeful that a purposebuilt facility will resolve many of the school’s challenges.

The education ministry said the plan to build a new school with a capacity for 1,200 students “is in progress”.

“We have the land already; we submitted the concept to PIAB (Public Investment Appraisal Branch) and this was approved. We are now preparing to submit the broader proposal this month for a design and build to the PIAB, after which we will move to implementation,” Dr Kasan Troupe, permanent secretary in the ministry, told The Sunday Gleaner.

“It is the plan to have this school ready in the academic year 2026/27,” she added.

The PIAB, which is based in the finance ministry, oversees the appraisal, prioritisation, and monitoring of public investment projects to ensure alignment with national development goals.

The overpopulation issue underscores broader concerns about the mismatch between school infrastructure and population growth in certain areas, often exacerbated by migration and other socioeconomic factors, said Linvern Wright, president of the Jamaica Association of Principals of Secondary Schools.

He highlighted the strain on facilities such as labs and bathrooms, and inadequate numbers of guidance counsellors and vice principals as significant challenges in overcrowded schools.

“It is problematic, but the ministry gives you money based on the number of students you have. ... Some schools, in that way, benefit from this because they maybe would get a little more. But it’s just that usually, the facilities, in terms of what’s available for students’ use, usually are not upgraded in line with the number of students that are taken in,” said Wright, who is the principal of William Knibb Memorial High in Trelawny.

Population change through migration and other socio-economic changes are also factors that Wright said the authorities have to consider in crafting solutions.

“Many of these schools, they come up because the population of the areas increases or the ministry sends more students to them without upgrading the buildings. Our issue is that you have in many communities housing schemes being put up, but the infrastructure of schools really is not in line with the number of residents in the area,” he contended.

SHIFT CHALLENGES

Shift schools face urgent challenges, says Old Harbour High Principal Lynton Weir, who highlighted overcrowding and inadequate facilities despite efforts by the education ministry.

Bridgeport High in St Catherine and Papine High in St Andrew converted to whole-day schools in September.

“While it is that you’re giving us buildings, our floor space remains the same. ... The playground remains the same; you can’t move that. The walking space remains the same; you can’t increase that,” Weir said, noting the addition of classrooms and bathrooms has not resolved the cramped nature of his school. “That could not have taken us off shift because our floor space remained the same.”

Old Harbour High, built for 2,000 students, enrolled 2,162 in September – a drop from nearly 2,600 a decade ago. Despite this decline, Weir said a strong demand for spaces remains due to the school’s location in a rapidly expanding township.

Old Harbour has transitioned from an agriculture-dependent area to a mixed economy dominated by service-oriented businesses. The authorities recorded the town’s population at 17,966 in 1991, increasing to 28,912 by 2011, with the Planning Institute of Jamaica projecting in 2007 that the population would reach 55,543 by 2030. This growth, driven by housing developments offering affordable options compared to Kingston and St Andrew, has exacerbated the demand for school spaces.

“The people moving from Kingston and other areas ... put the pressure on the school and say, ‘I am moving to Old Harbour, Sir. You have to tek mi child, please.’ And, you squeeze and you put the child in,” Weir explained. “So, you know your carrying capacity is 2,000, but when the community starts to pinch at you and they come at you every day, you have to give in and you end up having 2,500 students.”

Weir, however, believes that declining national birth rates may naturally ease the shift system over time.

“We are going to be getting ourselves off the shift system outside of the ministry because our numbers have been dropping,” he told The Sunday Gleaner.

Other shift schools facing overcrowding include Port Antonio High, which registered 1,633 students for 800 spaces in the 20232024 school year; Petersfield High, which enrolled 1,598 for 800 spaces; and St James High, with 1,778 students for its 1,000-capacity facility.

The shift system has been criticised for its limited contact time for lessons while also limiting students’ participation in extracurricular activities.

The Ministry of Education has not yet responded to Sunday Gleaner enquiries about how it plans to address overpopulation.

The size of a school’s population determines the salary band for principals, with larger schools offering higher pay.

“This classification is used to manage resources, grants and also to determine the salary scale or band on which the school principal is paid,” the ministry explained last month.

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