LUCEA, Hanover – Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education, Maria Jones, says the government has, through the expansion of existing schools and construction of new ones, created approximately 17,000 additional school spaces within the last two years.

The additional spaces, she said, form part of the government’s 10-year education transformation programme which began in 2005.

According to Jones, the government is aggressively pursuing the recommendation of the Task Force on Education Reform, which calls for the creation of school environments that are more conducive to learning.

“Fundamentally this means provision of additional classrooms, laboratories, modern technology, libraries, auditoria, furniture…”, Jones said. ” In pursuit of this goal almost 400 schools have been repaired and 170,000 pieces of furniture and equipment have been procured and delivered,” she added.

She pointed out, however, that space audits conducted by the Ministry of Education have indicated that the government will need to almost double the number of school places in order to provide the ideal environment of the education transformation vision.

“…That is to eliminate the shift system, reduce the class sizes, reduce school size and rationalise the system to just two types of school – primary and secondary,” she explained.

The permanent secretary made the disclosure on Monday at the Rusea’s High School junior campus in Lucea, at the official handing over of the institution’s refurbished science laboratory.

Funding for the refurbished building to house the laboratory was provided by the Fiesta Hotel Group to the tune of $5 million, after the hotel chain was approached by members of the Rusea’s Old Students Association (ROSA) for assistance.

Financial controller at the Fiesta Hotel, Jesus Sobriano, later told the Observer that his group plans to provide the 230-year-old institution with further assistance in the near future.

The group is currently constructing a 1,600-room hotel at Point, just two miles from Lucea, at a cost of US$150 million.

Sobriano said on completion, the group plans to employ some of the school’s past students. Just over 2,000 persons are expected to be employed at the resort, construction of which is expected to be completed next year.