Schools Full!

MLA Alden McLaughlin	Nyda Flatley

Friday, June 4, 2004

Cayman’s hard-pressed public schools are bursting at the seams and new students will find it difficult to enroll for the start of the next school year.

Already, three government schools have made arrangements for six more temporary classrooms to be in place for next term to help cope with the ever-increasing number of pupils. Three such temporary classrooms are currently being used: two at George Hicks High School and one at Bodden Town Primary School.

Sources have indicated that four of the temporary classrooms, which cost approximately $30,000 each, will be used at John Gray High School next fall, while one each have been ordered for Cayman Brac High School and the North Side school.

Because of the high volume of students, George Hicks High School has brought forward to this Friday, 4 June its registration deadline from the original date of 15 June.

The date was shifted because the school said it simply could not offer any more enrollment space.

Chief Education Officer Nyda Flatley revealed that the number of students transferring from government primary schools had risen this year, limiting the number of available spaces at the high school for other transfers.

“The department therefore took the decision to bring forward the registration deadline following discussions with the Ministry of Education and the school,” said Mr Flatley.

The granting of Caymanian Status to more than 3,000 people late last year is one of the reasons that the schools have seen a significant increase in enrollment. Dependents of those who received status that were legally resident in the Cayman Islands also are entitled to Status, and as such can now attend public schools. Estimates range from 4,500 to 9,000 additional dependents that have become entitled to Status as a result of last year’s grants.

“The Government didn’t think through some of the implications of making so many Status grants at one time,” said George Town MLA Alden McLaughlin,

“I’ve always said I was all in favour of allowing people who qualified to get Caymanian Status, but that we need to make room from them first. There were a lot of social and educational consequences of the Status grants that Government ignored despite the fact that myself and other members of the Opposition pointed it out to them.”

Mr McLaughlin noted that George Hicks High School was built to accommodate 400 students, and that it will now hold 1,100 during the next term. It is still not enough, as some students will be turned away. “What are we going to do with the others,” he asked.

Complicating matters is a situation where some students who now have legal residency here have not been able to obtain the necessary student visa from the Immigration Department to attend private or government schools, even though the Education Law makes it a punishable criminal offence if parents do not send their children to school.

It is not just the Government schools that are quite literally feeling the squeeze.

Cayman Prep and High Schools has begun construction at its Prep School site on Smith Road in order to offer more space for pupils.

“The construction work is going very well,” said Jean Bahadur, Principal of Cayman Prep. “The two-storey block allows us to now add a third stream to our grade levels. We now have two classes each for kindergarten and Year One, and this September we’ll be able to have three classes each. After that, we will gradually add one class to each year. This site on Smith Road will be site-sufficient for the primary school.”

As of 2 June, the school had received 130 applications for 50 current kindergarten spots. When the construction is complete, the school will be able to invite 75 students for kindergarten in September 2004.

Looking back on her four years as principal, Ms Bahadur commented that this was the greatest demand for spots at Cayman Prep and High School she had experienced. “I’m encouraged that so many Caymanians are seeing the quality of education we provide and willing to enroll their children in our school,” she said.

Other private schools are also understood to be considering their options over temporary or permanent buildings to cope the Island’s booming school-age population.

The fact that enrolment at Government schools is growing at a high rate and that students are learning in temporary classrooms, might also be a reason for parents now looking outside the public schools for their children’s education.

Back...

Click here for reader comments...