WESTERN BUREAU — Yesterday’s start to the new school year went smoothly in western Jamaica except for a few cases of inadequate furniture and over-crowding.

At the Muschette Comprehensive High School in Trelawny more than 100 students were turned away because of space constraints. But Millicent Grey, the acting principal of the school of 1,800 students and 64 teachers, said the start of the school year went fairly well.

“Overall we can’t complain, we have an adequate supply of furniture and teachers,” Grey said.

Schools like the Granville All Age in Trelawny needed a few desks and chairs for the teachers, but there was sufficient furniture for the 900 enrolled students.

There has been an increase in the number of students at Granville this year and according to acting principal, Evadney Jarrett, some new classrooms were recently added to accommodate the increase.

In Westmoreland, Ricardo Gayle, the principal of the Frome Technical High painted a picture of a well-staffed facility with little snags on its first day.

He said the school started its registration last week and this assisted in yesterday’s smooth reopening of the facility which was not in need of furniture and had its full complement of teachers.

“In fact we could have gotten more teachers if we wanted to. We have been interviewing many persons who wanted to teach here, from early in the holiday,” Gayle added.

At the Catherine Hall Primary School in Montego Bay only new students were present yesterday, but principal Deloris Moore told the Observer that although there was a shortage of furniture at the school she did not envisage any major problems today when the more than 1,400 students are expected to be in attendance.

“Things went smoothly (Monday) and we should be able to cope (Tuesday),” Moore added.

But there were reports of furniture shortage, though not chronic, at the Green Island Comprehensive High School in Hanover, Mannings School in Westmoreland and Cornwall College in St James.

And the Barracks Road Primary School was reported to have experienced overcrowding.

But regional director at the Ministry of Education, Jasper Lawrence told the Observer that the start of the new school year went fairly smoothly and the slight hiccups would soon be addressed.

He noted that the education ministry has already supplied a number of desks and chairs to some schools in western Jamaica.

“These include Cornwall College which has received 100 desks and 100 chairs for students; Ruseas High, the same amount, Little London High received 50 chairs and 50 desks,” Lawrence said.

He said some other schools are slated to receive their furniture sometime this week while others will get theirs later in the school year.