School board approves classrooms construction

THE board and administration of Wardstrip Primary School in Port Moresby have approved the construction of three extra classrooms to cater for the extra classes in grades six and three.
Headteacher Emily Ricky told The National that the number of Grade three students has increased this year from 400 to about 600.
Ricky said this was a concern because the classrooms were now overcrowded.
“While waiting for the launching of the new building block which has a capacity of four double classrooms and two offices we have this arrangement for our Grade three students,” she said.
“Our Grade three classes are heavily affected because they came in big numbers and to fit them into six classrooms is difficult.
“We are resorting to an alternative arrangement which is to make use of the incomplete buildings.
“We have spoken with the parents to assist with washing out the classrooms and putting roofing iron over so that we have three extra classrooms.
“Even with the eight streams of classes all those classes are going to have about 79 students per class according to the way we have worked it out.”
Ricky said she did not want to turn away children from the school.
There are currently 20 Grade three students on the waiting list to be enrolled.
“I still have a lot of requests for Grade three transfers but that’s going to be pending until I implement another strategy.
“It’s called a 30- day check for all children that do not turn up to school within that period. After the 15-day warning we take their names out so that may create some space to enroll the needy students.”