By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THE Ministry Education, Science and Technology is concerned over the “unexpected” applications for early retirement from over 100 public school teachers this year, Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald said yesterday.

Mr Fitzgerald said 119 teachers applied for early retirement this year, which he said was a “big number” by the ministry’s standards that came “unexpectedly” to officials. Mr Fitzgerald also said the ministry has seen “a number” of teachers give notice of their intent to resign within the last two weeks, and added that he expects “more unforeseen resignations” to occur before next week’s commencement of the 2016/2017 school year.

To deal with the matter, Mr Fitzgerald said the ministry has focused its attention on ensuring that the Family Island schools are staffed as best as possible, adding that the ministry will likely have to employ some 30 “supply teachers” in order to fill the vacancies that were created.

New Providence, Mr Fitzgerald said, is not an issue for the ministry, as he said the capital has enough teachers “we can bring in in order to fill the void.”

“We’ve given all the administrators notice so that they can make preparations during this week to make sure the teachers are in place for next week,” Mr Fitzgerald added. “And so at the end of the day we are aware of what’s going on and the challenge that exists and we’ve been able to meet that challenge.

“I just had a meeting (Monday) with the director and the deputy director, those who are responsible for school management and they have assured me that they’re working with administrators and we’ll be ready for the proper complement of teachers and that repairs will be completed to the extent that it won’t hamper school opening.”

Mr Fitzgerald also said despite getting to a “late start” on public school repairs, his ministry is confident that nothing will delay next week’s opening of the 2016/2017 school year.

“We’ve been working very diligently with (the Ministry of Works and Urban Development) and the Ministry of Finance, the contractors have been working extremely hard, and it appears as if we’re going to have everything in order for opening of school, so that’s good news,” he said. “There’s going to be nothing that will impede us opening schools on time with regards to repair matters.”

And regarding repairs to schools in those islands most affected by Hurricane Joaquin last year, Mr Fitzgerald said: “In Salina Point (Acklins) there’s I think one class or two that the Ministry of Works was working on with regards to repairs but that’s not going to hamper anything,” he said. “In Crooked Island, we’re just still ascertaining how many students are going to come back. We’ve repaired both schools but we’re only using one. The other one we gave to local government because we just didn’t have the numbers there.

“We’ve contacted all of those parents who left and many of them came and were given full scholarships to St John’s school…I think about 47 throughout those islands went to St Johns. So we’re still going to have to ascertain to see how many are coming back. But the schools are ready and they’re built to take the students in.”

Last year, Mr Fitzgerald said the government spent $7,673,851.92 on its public school repair programme. He said 300 contracts were awarded throughout the Bahamas for the repairs.

At the time, Mr Fitzgerald said EP Roberts Primary School in New Providence required the most repairs. He also said that students at AF Adderley had to be relocated because some of their facilities had been “condemned.”

The Marathon MP said the government had to relocate the school’s 7th grade students because the school’s trailers, which had been set up as makeshift classrooms, were not fit for use. However, he said at the time that the government was in the process of constructing a 24-classroom block costing $10m-$11m.