Ballakermeen High School in Douglas looks set to be getting its fourth mobile classroom, as the school continues to operate well over its capacity.

The school’s permanent capacity is 1,370, however for the current academic year the school has had 1,661 students, which is expected to rise further still in coming years.

We have previously reported that St Ninian’s High School, which has a capacity of 1,600, currently has 1,214 students on its roll and is predicted to remain largely static.

If granted, the application (19/00629/B) by the Department of Education, Sport and Culture, would see the fourth classroom built at the St Catherine’s Drive side of the school field, adjacent to the existing three.

It would house two classrooms, each with capacity for a class size of 30 students, two storage cupboards and a set of toilets.

Access would be provided by a ramp on the front of the mobile building with a path constructed to continue on from the existing mobiles.

Despite the overcrowding issue at Ballakermeen, the DESC said it has no plans to build ’any significant extensions’ to the school, instead relying on reviews and alterations to high school catchment areas.

However this has proved controversial as parents in a Douglas primary school started a petition against sending their children to St Ninian’s as the first three years are spent at the Bemahague site in Onchan.

A DESC spokesman said: ’The proposed additional double classroom mobile is to provide additional capacity, to help meet the current capacity pressures the school has.

’A general review of the catchment areas for schools in the east of the island is currently being undertaken by the department.’