The Ministry of Education is planning to build a new school in the Pembroke/Devonshire area in the future ? but must first find some available land.

Education Minister Terry Lister said yesterday that they continue to search for space to build not only another school, but also another preschool.

?From end to end, our enrolment in Somerset, St. George?s, St. David?s and Hamilton is okay. But there is a crisis in Pembroke and Devonshire where children get turned away and parents get very upset,? he said.

Mr. Lister said this is one of the major challenges facing education in coming years, but finding room for another ten pupils at Prospect Preschool has been a bonus.

The preschool will be accommodating 50 pupils this year ? compared to 40 last year.

In order to accommodate these ten new pupils, Prospect Preschool turned an unused room into an additional classroom.

As far as a new preschool for Pembroke is concerned, Mr. Lister said the search continues.

?We haven?t found anything we want,? he said.

He added that the Ministry is looking for a piece of land to put up something ?purpose built? ? similar to the Government preschool in Warwick.

?Many of our other facilities are in church halls and, while we get along very well with our landlords, we prefer to move to something we can control and operate ourselves,? he said.

What the Minister has in mind is something like Lagoon Park in Somerset.

?The beauty of Lagoon Park is not just the building, but the space outside and (that) children are safe... they won?t get knocked down by cars,? he said.

Mr. Lister predicted all schools would open on time this year and said the Ministry is excited about some of the developments across the Island.

One of these is a new school library for Prospect Primary.

Due to a lack of space the school has never had a library before, but some changes were made over the summer to provide students with a ?small? library.

?Nowhere as big as other schools, it?s a start,? he said.

Works and Engineering has also spent time at Paget Primary School getting the school?s electrical system ?up to snuff?.

Mr. Lister said Paget Primary is behind other schools in terms of what they can and cannot do with computerised programmes. He said he hopes to have this problem ?licked? by the end of the year.

He said the Ministry works on a three-year rotation system and of 18 primary schools, six were worked on this year.

?We have spent a lot of time, money and effort at Whitney to make sure that Whitney is up to snuff,? he said.

Whitney is an ?aided school? and, as such, is allocated a certain amount of money from Government for maintenance.

?But sometimes that money does not go far enough,? he said.