$30-million upgrade for Mount Salem Primary school

Some $30 million is being spent to rehabilitate the Mount Salem Primary and Infant School in St James.

The project, which is about 15 per cent complete, is among the social projects being done under the Zone of Special Operations (ZOSO), which was implemented in Mount Salem in September 2017.

Work is being done on one of the main buildings of the institution which was condemned in 2019, due to deterioration of its upper flooring.

“We started that work in November, so it’s still early days,” said Omar Sweeney, managing director of the Jamaica Social Investment Fund.

“We had completed the procurement for the new equipment for the school, so we have that in storage, and we are waiting on the contractor now to complete the work [to] rehabilitate the structure… We are now retrofitting the structure and strengthening it to meet the current building codes and then we will be able to put the new equipment in there and then the school should return to its full functional capability,” he added.

Rehabilitation of the Mount Salem Police Station, which was completed earlier this year, also formed part of the build phase of the ZOSO. More than $200 million has already been spent in Mount Salem as part of the plan to transform the volatile community.