A final decision on space allocation at East End primary schools is expected to be made this week.

Last week, Education Minister Terry Lister met with trustees of St. George's Prep School to discuss their concerns about a decision to axe one of their primary one classes.

According to Garth Rothwell, chairman of the school's board of trustees, Mr. Lister promised to get back to them this week.

"It was quite a good meeting ? he listened to our case and said he needed to think about it and discuss it with others in the Government. From the meeting I'm very hopeful. He was very attentive and listened to what we had to say," said Mr. Rothwell.

Mr. Lister said that he was pleased that parents had presented an alternative plan to the reallocation of classrooms that the Ministry had decided upon.

"The more parents get involved with the system the better it is. This is what the school support rules are about ? us being forced to put them in place because parents aren't active enough. Here's a case where they are and we appreciate it."

He added: "Our responsibility doesn't change. Our responsibility is ensuring that we have the right allocation of resources, We have to ensure that if we put a group of students in year one that they are accommodated all the way through. We also have to be concerned about certain schools getting completely overfilled to the point of not having the space and other schools being under-utilised. So we will look at all the issues and if it's necessary for us to revisit the decisions that have already been made we will do so."

Asked why he had not attended a PTA meeting to discuss the issues last week, he said he had not been invited.

"The request had been for the Chief Education Officer to attend ? the Chief Education Officer attended."

Parents were outraged when they learned of Government's decision to cut one of the popular school's two entry classes. Government also decided to add a classroom at East End Primary School but a number of children would still have to go to schools in other parts of the Island.