The Orange Bay Primary School will have additional classrooms for its students, thanks to a $11.5-million grant that it received through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Project.

Principal of Orange Bay Primary Gwendolyn Lindsay Johnson sought the help of the Japanese Embassy about two years ago, after noticing that the school was in dire need of repair and additional classes were needed to accommodate its growing population.

Last June, funding was granted and an additional building was constructed which includes two classrooms for grades one and two, a principal’s office was built, and new windows were installed.

Prior to the involvement of JICA, the school, which has a population of 207 students, had only two main buildings containing grades one to six, and classes being partitioned by blackboards.

The school, which was built in 1940, has gone through several exercises of renovation of its reading room and washroom for them to be used as classrooms.

Lindsay Johnson explained that the goal is to boost the literacy level of the children, and in order for effective learning to take place, students need to be separated. She said that previous challenges existed with teaching as a result of disruption from the classes being closely packed together, but presently students are able to interact freely in group activities and learning is more efficient.

Importantly, she added that the push to get the grant was to build classrooms for the lower classes.

“That is where we start because if we have effective teaching and learning in the lower school, when you go upper school it will be better.” Lindsay Johnson openly expressed her gratitude forhaving received a perimeter fence from the agency, as the school was facing challenges with its security.

“We had vandalism. When we are gone in the evenings, the boys who play ball would go into the school and maybe cut the pipes to get water after play. Sometimes they would go into the classrooms and take out things from the class and then students too would sometimes come back and go into the classes to take things,” she said.

The Japanese Government, through its Grassroots Human Security Project, has so far assisted seven schools in Jamaica through infrastural development, and aims to cooperate with local institutions to prompt development and provide an appropriate educational environment for Jamaicans to broaden their potential.