Ministry to fade out shift system in schools

The Ministry of Education is moving to fade out the much criticized shift system.

There have been criticisms that the system has out-lived its usefulness and students are being short changed by institutions, which now use the system.

Chief Education Officer at the ministry, Clement Radcliffe has revealed that very soon the school shift system now being used at a number of schools across the island will be a thing of the past.

Mr Radcliffe says it is now a policy direction of the ministry that they should change all shift schools.

Mr Radcliffe, a former principal at the Glenmuir High School in Clarendon, was speaking at the valedictory service for Black River High in St. Elizabeth yesterday.

In the meantime, one St. Ann school will be off the shifty system when the new school year begins.

Marcus Garvey Technical High will no longer be operating on that system come September.

The school has been plagued by problems of indiscipline and below par performance partly attributed to the shift system with its reduced class time that restricts extra curricula activities.

The school will now have two campuses.

A junior campus is to be at Mansfield Heights about ten miles away in Ocho Rios where Grades seven and eight students will be housed.

Grades nine to 11 will remain at the main campus in St. Ann's Bay.

Irie FM News also understands that classes at both campuses will begin at 8 a.m.