SANTA CRUZ, St Elizabeth — For more than 150 years, it has been a defining example of an all-boys’ school.

But last week, for the first time, Munro College at Potsdam in the hills of Malvern, St Elizabeth, formally registered girls for its academic programme.

The girls, numbering “about 12”, school leaders say, are part of an expanded sixth form programme which has been made easier by the leasing from Government of classroom and accessory facilities across the road from Munro.

Those facilities became available following Education Minister Ronnie Thwaites’ decision to abandon plans by the previous Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government to establish a rehabilitative education centre for disruptive boys there.

When the Jamaica Observer Central visited last Thursday, former principal of Munro Brandford Gayle, who now co-ordinates activities at the new facility, was quick to point out that girls are “not new” to the Munro campus. For years, neighbouring girls’ school Hampton has been part of exchange classroom programmes with Munro, he said.

However, Gayle said, “now they are registered for Munro. They are Munro and wear the uniforms (including ties) in the colours of Munro”.

Gayle — who, like new Munro Principal Arnaldo Allen, is an old boy of Munro — expects the number of girls entering the school for the sixth form programme to increase over the short to longer term.

“Who knows, we may soon have a Munro netball team or a girls’ fourby-one relay team at Champs,” quipped Gayle. He pointed out that two other boys’ schools — St George’s College in Kingston and Cornwall College in Montego Bay — have taken the lead in accepting girls to their sixth form programmes.

Allen, who has been seconded by the Ministry of Education from New Forest Secondary and Junior High for at least a year to replace Acting Principal Sonia Neil, applauded the move.

“I am all for educating both boys and girls,” said Allen, who has been credited for “transformational leadership” at New Forest Secondary where he has served since 1988 and as principal since 2009.

Dr Dave Lyn of the Munro board of management confirmed to the Observer Central that Neil, a longserving educator at Munro, is ill.

Gayle said the new sixth form facilities — once slated to become a Jamaica Football Federation academy before those plans were abandoned and replaced by the idea of a special school for unruly boys — are being used mainly for classes in “business and the humanities”.

Five of seven classrooms are now in use. There is also considerable dormitory space, which Gayle says may well be used in the future, while teachers have expressed an interest in renting flats at the complex.

Gayle said the new facilities were an invaluable addition to the school.

“Munro’s numbers increased this year to over 1,100 and I think they would have been pressured to find space,” he said.

When Thwaites announced his decision to change the role of the new facilities in mid-August, he said Hampton would be in partnership with Munro in using the facilities.

But, according to Gayle, “this year Hampton is not taking part…”

Girls accepted at Munro’s sixth form so far are from Hampton, St Elizabeth Technical High, Black River High, and Glenmuir.