WESTERN BUREAU — A sharp decline in the student population at the Senior Primary and Infant School in deep rural Hanover has forced the ministry of education to close the more than 100 year-old institution, displacing nine students and their teacher.

“Senior has effectively closed itself,” said Edwin Thomas, the education ministry’s information officer. “The ministry has now instructed the (school) board to formalise the closure,” he told the Observer on Tuesday.

But the ministry’s decision to close the institution has apparently peeved residents of Senior, who were adamant that they would be making strong representation to the ministry of education and their member of parliament, Barrington Gray for the institution to remain open.

But Thomas explained that the matter of the closure has long been on the ministry’s agenda, as for the last couple of years, there has been only nine students attending the institution built to accommodate more than 120 students.

“These students were taught by one teacher and that, in any language, is foolishness,” Thomas maintained.

Senior is a sparsely populated community, located on the St James/ Westmoreland border, and according to Thomas, investigations carried out by the ministry revealed that residents were unwilling to enroll their children at the school. He said most parents were in fact bypassing Senior to register their children elsewhere.

Up to five years ago, there were roughly 70 students attending the institution and that number dwindled to nine in recent years.

However, an executive member of the Senior Citizens Association, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the Observer that a recruitment drive was currently underway in the community to increase the school’s population for the new school year. According to the executive board member, and up to a week ago, there were at least 20 students who were prepared to register.

“I am very upset with the decision to close the school,” she said. “What are they going to do with the building? We cannot afford to see the institution go,” she maintained.

But while it is not immediately clear what caused the numbers to dwindle over the years, some residents have put the blame squarely at the feet of the administrators of the school.

They charged that the institution was not properly managed and as a result, parents took the decision to send their children to the Cambridge and Bickersteth Primary Schools in St James.

But Thomas argued that it would be uneconomical to keep the school open, adding that the ministry’s decision was in the best interest of the students.

“It is uneconomical to run a school like that, if we do, it will be to the detriment of the students because one teacher cannot focus on seven grades and teach them (students) effectively,” Thomas said.