| Kindergarten Students Back to School in January | | Print | |
| Tuesday, 15 December 2009 14:56 | |||
 After a long first trimester at home, children of kindergarten age across Providenciales are finally going to be welcomed into school. Director of Education Edgar Howell said he anticipates that all 120 registered K1 and K2 students will be able to start school when the term begins Jan. 4. “We are simply waiting on the furniture at this point,” Howell explained.
In June, then Premier Galmo Williams announced the government would no longer be able to afford to fund students to attend private schools, sending a surge of students into the public school system. This influx created a capacity problem for the three public primary schools and one public high school in Providenciales. “We tried to accommodate as many students as possible,” he explained. “However, there simply was not enough space to take in all the additional students.” The Ministry of Education took the decision to place priority on the older children, ensuring almost all children above the first grade started school at the beginning of the term in September. That left the smaller children without classroom space, for which thirty-four container classrooms were organized. The decision to purchase the containers was one of the first taken by the Advisory Council in August, and the containers arrived on island a shortly afterward. The containers were painted, prepared and have been waiting at the various school locations. Further delays included problems with the installation of electricity. All other resources have been available since early in this term. “Textbooks are here, and the teachers have been on staff at the schools assisting in other classrooms while waiting for the new classrooms to be operational,” Howell said. He does not anticipate any long-term negative effects from this delay. “I believe early childhood educators are anxious to have children back in school, and with the help of the parents we can get back on track quickly.” Some students were accommodated by private institutions that made special provisions to accept the left out children. “The Department of Education would like to express our thanks to schools that made offers to those parents who could not otherwise afford to send their children temporarily to a private institution.” Howell specifically mentioned the Community Christian Academy where he was aware some students had been accommodated. The Department of Education has been faced with great challenges during the last 18 months. The 2008-09 school year was delayed by damages caused by Hurricanes Hannah and Ike. After finally getting back on their feet by the end of the school year, they were then challenged with an influx in the student population for 2009-10. Given the circumstances, Howell believes the schools and students have done extremely well. There are still a few students who were not able to register for this school year. Howell said they did extend the education policy limit of 28 students per class in some cases in order to accept more students, but he says the classrooms are only built to accommodate so many. Although the container classrooms will help, long term Howell says another primary school is desperately needed in Providenciales to satisfy the population.
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