THE tradition in some Jamaican schools is to place damaged desks and chairs in a heap in a corner on the compound. Tradition also sees them using the little resources allotted by the Ministry of Education to buy new benches.

But at Edith Dalton James High School in Duhaney Park, Kingston, there is a different practice: broken school furniture are repaired, instead of spending money to purchase new ones.

“On an annual basis we look at our needs, we make requests to the Ministry of Education and out of those requests, if they are not forthcoming we look at our inventory in July and what will be the need in September and therefore we do the requisite repairs,” Principal Ray Howell told the Jamaica Observer.

“The ministry has assisted, but the ministry does not have the resources, and some of the desks, for instance, might just have a leg broken,” he continued.

With this cottage industry, the school is better able to channel its limited resources into other aspects of development.

The project, which started approximately eight years ago, sees the rehabilitation of about 100 desks and chairs annually.

“To date, we have repaired about 140 desks, and we may just do about the same in terms of chairs,” Howell stated.

According to Howell, the cost to repair the furniture is significantly less than purchasing new items.

The cost of a desk is $3,500, while one chair amounts to $2,500.

“So, if you do 100 desks it’s $350,000,” he said. “The actual cost to repair a chair is about $500, so we save $2,000 per chair… [and] we save about $3,000 per desk.”

The project, Howell said, saves the school up to $400,000 annually, even as they spend approximately $70,000 on both material and labour to repair the once damaged furniture.

The repairs are done during the summer holidays by teachers and other staff workers. However, Industrial Arts students are engaged in the repairs when school opens as part of their curriculum.

The school, which collects only 50 per cent in school fees annually, has had to become self-sufficient and creative to save and adequately manage its finances.

“Well, our parents who come to us are not from those who have it. We probably have about 400 students on PATH (Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education). A lot of them genuinely don’t have it,” the principal told the Sunday Observer.

He said currently, up to $15 million is owed in school fees, which is one of the reasons for the creative projects that have become a part of the school’s culture.

“We try to ensure that we maximise the [use of] resources. In fact, there are persons here who do the tiling, so all the tiling in the school has been done internally,” Howell boasted.

The principal said that the glass used in the modern windows and doors installed across the compound was created by Major Richard Carter, an engineer and retired head of the school’s Industrial Arts Department who continues to contribute to the school’s development.

He added that the school family was also responsible for the painting of the buildings and murals on the campus.

Major Carter said that for the past four years the school’s development has been incorporated into the curriculum of its Career Advancement Programme students.

“What we do is [with] any minor refurbishing, and that goes from carpentry to welding and any metal work type refurbishing, we integrate it into the teaching/learning process and use them as practical exercise for the students. So the school benefits and the students benefit,” Carter explained.

Not only do the students benefit academically, but according to Carter, with the “earn and learn programme” students are given a stipend for participating in the projects.

He said students who are a part of the Technical Vocational Education Training programme also benefit, as some use the rehabilitation projects as their work experience — a requirement for the completion of the programme.

The school has also been responsible for the creation of partitions for the computer labs in an effort to make more classrooms to accommodate the population. They have also created computer tables using the base of the damaged desks that would have been thrown out.

“These are material that people would have thrown away,” Howell stated as he showed the Sunday Observer the recreated furniture.

He said the school was also responsible for creating bistro tables for the cafeteria and the remodelling of shelves and tables in the library.

Minister of Education Ronald Thwaites has commended the initiative at Edith Dalton James High. He said this year the ministry spent up to $45 million in providing thousands of units of furniture to the island’s schools.

“Have you ever been to some of the schools in Jamaica and you always see a pile of mash-up furniture around the back somewhere? We can’t do that anymore and just order new ones and expect it to be paid for,” Thwaites said at a recent Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange.

“We Jamaicans, in every aspect of our lives, particularly in education where we are teaching people values and attitudes, have to do more with what we have,” Thwaites said.

He encouraged other schools to become more resourceful.

“These are ways we hope to add longevity to the capital stock that we have and, you know, it sounds like a poor man with a tear up pants with a patch on the bottom or something, but frankly this is the way we’re going to have to live. We have to get more use out of what we’re investing in and there’s no pride involved in doing something like that. In fact, the pride ought to be in the frugality and prudence of it all,” Thwaites said.

Two weeks ago, Clan Carthy High School in Kingston told 600 students to remain at home because of a shortage of furniture.

Last Monday, the education ministry said that 120 desks and chairs ordered by the school’s management, in addition to supplies provided through the ministry, were delivered to the school.