Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald said Monday that he was satisfied with the condition of schools as thousands of youngsters arrived at their respective campuses for the start of the new academic year.

Mr. Fitzgerald met and greeted students at Claridge Primary, T.A. Thompson Junior High and C.I. Gibson Secondary schools early Monday morning.

The minister said he was pleased with the works that had been carried over the course of the summer recess at schools across New Providence and the Family Islands and he noted that while there are some minor issues at several schools, overall he expected the new school to kick off without a hitch.

“We did a lot of work over the summer by preparing the schools for the kids to come back,” he said. “A lot of work with the principals and the teachers and everybody appears to be showing up to work. We have one small delay at Naomi Blatch Pre-School with the paving in front of the school and the rain that happened over the weekend kind of disrupted that, but we expect that we would have that finish next weekend.

“We are doing a major renovation for Naomi Blatch Pre-School including expansion of the playground an so forth and that school is going to be very nice when it is finished. We have enclosed it with a wall and so we are very pleased.”

Minister Fitzgerald said repairs were ongoing at several other schools, but he assured that these works will not disrupt classes.

More than 50,000 students are attending public schools across the country and the minister is hoping for a productive school year.

“We wish that we had more money to do all of the repairs,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “We spent $5.2 million throughout the country addressing the major issues for the most part and all the principals and teachers are satisfied with the level of work carried out so we are very pleased with that.”

The minister also confirmed that all public schools were opened yesterday.