THE Jose Marti Technical High School in St Catherine yesterday sent home more than 300 grade seven and grade nine students, to await completion of a new classroom block that should have accommodated them.

Principal Bevar Moodie told an emergency meeting of parents that the affected students would have to remain home for the rest of the week, contending that it was impossible to accommodate all the school’s 2,100 students simultaneously without the additional classrooms.

“The alternative to this would be to stagger but it is not something we want to enter into now,” he said, recalling that a year ago the school was forced to place the students on a staggering system featuring a three-day week for some students.

The lingering problem of overcrowding has forced Jose Marti to place 80 of the 250 new grade nine students from the 2007 Grade Nine Achievement Test, in grade 10.

Under normal circumstances, successful students are placed in grade nine at the technical school where they would begin doing vocational subjects leading to career choices.

Prior to that, the school had more than 250 students moving up to grade nine, bringing the total number in that grade to over 500.

Last week, the school told students that there was “nothing else that we can do except to move some of you up to grade 10 because the education ministry gave us more students than we have the space for”.

Moodie sought to give the assurance that the students should not be at a disadvantage as some would be allowed to repeat a grade.

He told the meeting that the current population had doubled from what it was three years ago, largely due to the significant population growth in Spanish Town, Portmore and some Clarendon communities.

As such, he hoped that the new education minister, Andrew Holness, would give special attention to the overcrowding of schools in these parishes.

“I am convinced the minister will attack overcrowding in this region and so I hope that by next August we should not be talking about schools with unfinished classrooms,” he said.

To console parents worried that there should be no further disruption of classes, Moodie said he foresaw no further delays due to a lack of space, explaining that Hurricane Dean had contributed to the delays in completion of the new classroom block.

He also pleaded for parents to co-operate and ensure that their children do schoolwork while at home.

“Without your co-operation there is no way we can provide education for 2,100 students, with many unable to read or write,” he said.