MONTEGO BAY, St James – A shortage of spaces at the Howard Cooke and Catherine Hall Primary schools appeared the most pressing obstacle in the way of a smooth start to the new school year in western Jamaica yesterday.

That aside, education ministry officials for the western region said that things went well for students in the parishes of Hanover, Westmoreland and St James.

“We don’t have any reports to suggest that there were any schools that were not opened…everything appears to have gone well,” said Devon Ruddock, the Ministry of Education’s senior education officer for Region Four.

According to principal at the Catherine Hall Primary and Infant School, Yvonne Gordon, her school did not have the capacity to deal with the demands for space.

“Right now we have over 1,400 students,” Gordon told the Observer. “Space is a problem. We have had to turn away some of the students who turned up this morning for accommodation.”

Lincoln James, principal of the nearby Howard Cooke Primary School, which can accommodate 1,300 students, faced a similar challenge and more.

“The challenges we are having this morning are with seats and space,” he said. “A lot of parents and guardians have sought admission for their children from everywhere. We could not accommodate any more.”

James, at the same time, expressed fresh concerns over the failure of the Ministry of Education to carry out rehabilitation work on what was designed as a temporary board structure and has been condemned by building officers from the ministry.

“The building is structurally unsound and is condemned by the ministry’s building officers and reluctantly we had to place students inside there,” he said. “We anticipated that the ministry would have done something about it but nothing has been done.

“It was meant to be a temporary building which has outlived it’s time. And beside that it is infested by rats and termites.”

There were also reports that a few schools in western Jamaica had leaking roofs, but Ruddock said that matter was expected to be addressed during the course of this week.

Principal of the Lowe River Primary and Junior High School in Trelawny, Angella Brown, said that the roofs of two of the classrooms that were damaged during the August 19 passage of Hurricane Dean were in an advanced state of repair.

She also told the Observer that the institution was now awaiting 100 desks that were promised by the Ministry of Education.

At the newly constructed Troy High School in Trelawny, which was opening its doors yesterday for the first time, board chairman Glester Rowe said all went well.

“We had a very smooth opening; about 95 per cent of the students enrolled were in school and we have adequate furniture, teachers and ancillary staff,” Rowe said.

He added that for the 2007/2008 school year, Troy High will only be accepting students for grades seven and nine.

He said, however, that the institution was expected to have its full complement of 700 students over the next three years.

At the Granville Primary School, also, in the parish, Principal Evadney Jarrett reported that the co-educational institution had a smooth start. The school – one of the better known in the parish – usually has an overcrowding problem.

But yesterday, Jarrett said so far the school has not been faced with that problem and they had adequate furniture.

The school presently has a student population of just over 500.

In St James, principal of the Flanker Primary and Junior High School, Lenoval Morle, said the institution also had a smooth start.

“We have a tradition of smooth starts and this year we maintained it,” Morle said. “We have enough furniture, the only thing we are awaiting now are a few filing cabinets,” he added.

The school operates on a shift system and presently has a student population of 1,400 and a teaching staff of 46.

At the Petersfield High School in Westmoreland, principal Euegine Spence was also satisfied with the start of the school year.

“We had a smooth opening, we are on a high and we are rearing to go, striving towards excellence in student learning outcome, as our mission dictates,” said an upbeat Spence.

Petersfield High has 1,780 students on roll and a teaching staff of 70.