MINISTER of State in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security Andrew Gallimore Thursday pledged assistance for the cash-strapped Caribbean Christian Centre for the Deaf (CCCD).

Gallimore’s promise came a day after the Observer, in a lead story, highlighted the boarding school’s inability to cover operational costs due to dwindling sponsorship.

“The problem right now is the day-to-day cash requirements for operating and providing for the 250 Jamaican children coming from all the different parishes; there is a general need there. And what we have been doing in our meeting earlier, is to brainstorm and to see exactly how these means can be met,” Gallimore said, during a tour of the Cassia Park Road centre in St Andrew Thursday morning.

“…We are going to try from the Ministry of Labour and Social Security to see what we will be able to do to assist. They (CCCD) do get some assistance from the Ministry of Education, but we are urging local corporate citizens who are able to give some assistance to do so,” he added.

Gallimore said that the school, which also has locations in Mandeville (Manchester) and Montego Bay (St James), has been playing a critical role in taking care of and providing for Jamaica’s deaf and hearing-impaired children.

The school – which started operating in 1994 on the premises formerly run by the Christian Deaf Fellowship – is registered with the education ministry as an independent institution and as such, receives an annual sum to assist with salaries. Also, overseas donors contribute US$25 per student each month while local sponsors contribute J$2,000 per child.

Operating cost and salaries at the institution amount to approximately $1.7 million each month. Although it costs about $40,000 to educate one student per term, students pay less than one-third of that amount each term for fees, meals and boarding.

Thursday, principal Maria Lawrence told the Observer that irregular payment of school fees was a big problem as only 30 of the institution’s 84 students paid their fees on time.

But the institution is also faced with other problems as its buildings, many constructed more than 50 years ago have started to deteriorate.

“We want to target the dining area ’cause if you look at the roof you can see how bad it is, the students here also do not have an auditorium. So we are going to start something on this building so that when the elements intervene they (the students) will not be exposed as they are at the moment,” said Danville Jones, managing director of the institution.

Teachers Thursday also complained that the dining area is unbearably hot at lunchtime as two old ceiling fans are unable to cool the packed area. Meanwhile, several classrooms are in need of repair and the school’s computers, as well as its collection of books in the library, were outdated.