National Education Trust committed to mass upgrades of schools islandwide

Several schools across the island, thanks to the National Education Trust (NET), are expected to benefit from major upgrades within the next few years to boost their respective educational programmes. This comes following a groundbreaking for a new three-storey classroom block at the Bridgeport High School on Tuesday in Portmore, St Catherine.

The National Education Trust, commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Youth, has been tasked with carrying out work under the Primary and Secondary Infrastructure Programme (PSIP) which is facilitating schools eliminating the shift system and reducing overcrowding. PSIP seeks to provide adequate, conducive and sustainable educational environment for teaching and learning. Similar to Bridgeport, the National Education Trust will also have a groundbreaking at Holmwood Technical High in July with both projects scheduled to be completed in time for the 2024/2025 academic year.

Latoya Harris-Ghartey, executive director of the National Education Trust, said, “It’s vital that our children are exposed to the best learning conditions possible. With that in mind, we are dedicated to executing PSIP and ensuring that all our projects are done in a timely manner.”

One of the recent successes of NET was the opening of a new classroom block for Edwin Allen High in Clarendon which was completed in under two years and now hosts over 150 students and staff. NET has also completed several other projects, including the completion of the resource room at Kingston College, construction of classroom blocks at Black River (this will facilitate the removal of the shift system at that school in the upcoming academic year) and Norman Manley High.

Harris-Ghartey said, “We have already seen the difference that the completion of these projects have made to our schools. We believe our students and staff will be able to thrive in these upgraded environments that promote higher learning while improving safety and social development overall.”

Among the main targets for NET is the construction of Dias Infant School in Hanover and further construction of classrooms in over 15 schools islandwide.