The Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Region Four, is intensifying efforts to locate approximately 1,000 students who remain unaccounted for following disruptions to the education system caused by Hurricane Melissa last year.

Regional Director Dr. Michele Pinnock told JIS News that structured retrieval efforts are currently underway across the Region.

These involve guidance counsellors, social workers, and school personnel conducting home visits and telephone outreach to trace affected students.

Dr. Pinnock outlined that some contact numbers on record are no longer functional and, in certain instances, families have relocated without providing updated information.

“Sometimes when we go out into the communities, we’re not able to get any information in terms of where the families would have relocated to,” the Regional Director stated.

The Ministry is encouraging parents whose children have relocated, to register them at the nearest school using the Student Registration Number (SRN) to track enrolment.

“We’re hoping to use the SRN… to locate any of these children throughout the whole island,” Dr. Pinnock explained.

She assured that for families experiencing financial or social challenges, the Ministry is facilitating connections with agencies such as the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH).

“If their families are having any issues, we are able to connect them… to make sure that the children are able to come back [to school],” the Regional Director told JIS News.

Additionally, Dr. Pinnock noted that some schools are easing uniform requirements and, in certain cases, providing uniforms free of cost to support students’ return.

Meanwhile, she is expressing confidence that students in exam cohorts will be located during national exam registration, while efforts continue to trace those in lower grades.

Procurement Director at the National Education Trust (NET), Suewayne Miller Bender, says the agency is partnering with qualified contractors to build back more resilient schools following the devastation of Hurricane Melissa.

More than 700 schools across the island sustained damage during the passage of the category-five hurricane last October.

Speaking at a recent public procurement engagement session, Mrs. Miller Bender pointed out that the Trust, which functions as both a registered charity and the primary infrastructure arm for the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth, and Information, is now shifting gears from emergency response to long-term, resilient reconstruction.

She noted that a key component of this resilience strategy is the transition from traditional roofing to slab roofs and other reinforced structures.

“We’re looking to partner with our contractors to ensure that our schools are built better so we can actually give the children of Jamaica what they deserve,” Mrs. Miller Bender said, inviting grades one and two contractors to reach out to the entity.

“The main requirement for the Melissa recovery is that the [contracting entity] needs a structural engineer on their team to conduct the [structural assessment] exercise, because we are not just building back the schools, we’re building stronger, better resilient schools that can withstand these hurricanes if they should come again,” she pointed out.

Mrs. Miller Bender said that several contractors have already come forward but noted that challenges in the tender process have caused some project delays.

These include contractors having incomplete bid submissions and failing to submit Tax Compliance Certificate (TCC), provide details about the composition of their teams, present Professional Engineers Registration Board (PERB) qualifications, among other things.

Mrs. Miller Bender said that NET also requires proof of the financial capability of the contracting firms, highlighting experiences “where contractors are not able to mobilise and start a project after the procuring entity would have awarded that contracting firm”.

She informed that the NET has placed a checklist at the front of its tender document to help contractors better prepare their submissions.

“So, [contractors] would have seen what the requirements are, what they need to submit to participate in the tender process to ensure that we do not have any holdup when we’re conducting our evaluation, going back out for clarification… because that is a further delay in our procurement process,” Mrs. Miller Bender stated.

Strengthening adoption, foster care and support for children with special needs has been identified as a national priority to ensure better outcomes for vulnerable children across Jamaica.

Minister of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon, emphasises the need to modernise Jamaica’s adoption framework in order to create more opportunities for children to transition into permanent and nurturing family environments.

“We keep talking about it, [but] we have not gotten there. We have to work on our adoption law,” she stated.

Senator Morris Dixon was speaking during the 14th Annual Educational Achievement Awards Ceremony, hosted by the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA), on Thursday (January 29) at the Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel in Kingston.

She highlighted the need to streamline the adoption process to ensure that children can more efficiently transition into stable and supportive family environments, noting, “the process has to become much simpler, and it needs to be quicker.”

Regarding foster care, the Minister emphasised that children thrive best in family-based settings, and called for greater national participation, adding, “I really do believe that the best place for a child is in a home with family.”

Senator Morris Dixon further highlighted gaps in support for children with special needs, particularly during their transition into adulthood.

‘‘There are so many children with special needs. We are expanding our programmes in the Ministry, and we have to do more of that,” she said.

Emphasising inclusion and opportunity, she emphasised that, “they can contribute to this country”, adding “we must, therefore, put in place programmes that [facilitate] these children.”

Minister Morris Dixon stressed the importance of developing national frameworks that ensure every child, regardless of circumstance or ability, feels valued, supported, and fully included in society.

The Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth, and Information has endorsed the staging of the Jamaica Association of Education Officers (JAEO) annual 5K Run/Walk, which will be held at the GC Foster College in St. Catherine on Sunday, February 1, starting at 6:00 a.m.

Members of the public are being invited to participate in this year’s event, which is dedicated to supporting the Hurricane Melissa recovery process and advancing the Association’s Adopt-a-School initiative.

According to a bulletin issued by the Ministry, the Run/Walk also seeks to promote wellness, physical activity, and preventive health practices among participants.

The document noted that persons taking part will benefit from hydration stations strategically placed along the route, official medals, post-race refreshments, and entertainment.

Awards will be presented for outstanding performances, and participants will also enjoy a complimentary massage following the Run/Walk.

Participants are encouraged to register for the event using the following link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfDbzOrfX9ezKEUI2l8rWB4OtAZlcIeSx3w68EsnsMMxOS0EA/viewform?usp=header.

For further information, persons may call (876) 433-8516 or (876) 315-1666 or make contact via email [email protected].

Minister of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon, has reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to ensuring that persons with disabilities are recognised as full citizens, with equal rights to access, participation and opportunity.

“You can see our commitment in how we have been approaching post-Hurricane Melissa recovery,” she said during the official handover ceremony for the HEART/NSTA Trust’s Region I National Development Project at the Jamaica Society for the Blind in Kingston on January 15.

Dr. Morris Dixon noted that the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, in partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP), launched a cash assistance programme in December 2025 to support vulnerable persons affected by the hurricane, including individuals with disabilities.

“They have been targeting those who need assistance the most. They have been prioritising households that have suffered near total damage or total loss, and in addition to that, there is a special focus on key vulnerabilities… and that’s children, older persons, and persons with disabilities. So, in our Hurricane Melissa response, persons living with disabilities have been a focus,” she stated.

The Minister noted that Jamaica’s partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has prioritised vulnerable groups, particularly through the implementation of an emergency multipurpose cash top‑up designed to support households with children.

“With the UNICEF, through the support of the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities (JCPD), we have a digital voucher mechanism that’s embedded in the ‘I Am Able’ app, and that’s designed to reach children with disabilities and their families,” she explained.

Regarding rebuilding efforts in western Jamaica, Senator Morris Dixon emphasised that special attention is being given to assisting the most vulnerable, including persons living with disabilities.

Meanwhile, she noted that within the education sector, the Government continues to strengthen systems designed to support learners with disabilities.

“As a Ministry, we want to make sure every child receives the support through appropriate assessments, learning accommodations, and the tools that will allow them to engage meaningfully and confidently with their studies,” Senator Morris Dixon maintained.

She emphasised the importance of ensuring that the Government is inclusive in every aspect of the education system, noting that access to justice is another key area of focus.

“The Government is ensuring that all our clerks in the courts are trained in sign language. We are also working to put many more of our services and our documents in Braille to make it easier for persons who are blind or visually impaired,” Minister Morris Dixon shared.

She added that the Government has also implemented tax exemptions to support persons with disabilities.

“Employed individuals registered with the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities are reminded that they are eligible to apply for an income tax exemption. Section 12 (Y) of the Income Tax Act provides an exemption on emoluments of individuals with permanent physical or mental disabilities who are, nonetheless, capable of gainful employment,” Senator Morris Dixon outlined.

The establishment of a Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) exemplary lab is in progress at Bustamante High School in Clarendon, at a cost of $15 million.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Dr. Kasan Troupe, made the disclosure at the official handover of computer labs at the Bustamante High School on Thursday, January 15.

“[Bustamante High] is one of the schools selected to get a TVET exemplary lab. We have invested $7.5 million already and we have another $7.5 million to complete the lab within this academic year,” she said.

Dr. Troupe explained that this is being pursued under the Ministry’s TVET expansion programme.

“We are also expanding technical and vocational education in our schools. We have a broader programme, which we call our TVET expansion programme. Bustamante High School has been selected to get a 21st century agriculture lab. They do the programme here but we want to bring them into 21st century skills in terms of how the smart room is connected, how they are going to use the technology in this room, in the field, how they are going to set up drones to do the watering, so they do not have to be physically there. That is the kind of thinking and exposure we are bringing to them,” she said.

The TVET expansion programme involves strategically investing in skills development by upgrading facilities, integrating modern technology, expanding course offerings in high schools and partnering with industry to create a workforce ready for 21st century jobs, ensuring relevance and promoting economic growth through practical industry-aligned training.

In addition, the Ministry of Education has made further commitments to fund the construction of security fencing around the school. The value of the project is $147 million.

“[This is to] ensure that the environment is safe and secure for the learners and the staff and also the property and equipment that we are investing in,” Dr. Troupe said.

The Permanent Secretary added that the Ministry is also assisting in funding the completion of two classrooms at the school.

“We are also going to be building out some classrooms. They have started work on two classrooms and the school is unable to continue resourcing that project. We have incorporated that in our 2026/27 budget space and our maintenance programme. The Ministry of Education’s region along with the technical officers will be leading that project and I have approved $15 million to complete that project, so the children can have more space,” she said.

Technical high schools are being equipped with digitisation laboratories by the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, as part of a national effort to modernise technical and vocational education and better align student training with labour market needs.

As part of the initiative, a digital construction lab is being established at the Stony Hill Technical High School in St. Andrew in collaboration with the HEART/NSTA Trust, which will oversee the procurement of specialised equipment, including 3D printers.

The lab, which will be located within the school’s industrial department, will be equipped with computers that meet the specifications for digital construction training.

Assistant Chief Education Officer, Technical and Vocational Unit in the Ministry, Shereen Davy-Stubbs, said the 3D printers will give students hands-on experience in manufacturing and applied technology.

“Our students will contribute to the manufacturing industry because there is a demand there,” she pointed out.

“They will create their ideas and produce the requisite pieces for the manufacturing industry,” she added.

Mrs. Davy-Stubbs noted that while Stony Hill Technical High will house the digital construction lab, all technical high schools will benefit from upgraded facilities tailored to their specific needs, with some focused on robotics or electronics.

“They selected the labs that they want based on their needs, and we have afforded them that opportunity,” she told JIS News, adding that the facilities will be commissioned once the upgrades are completed.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Dr. Kasan Troupe, told JIS News that the digitisation programme focuses on retrofitting and modernising existing spaces rather than expanding physical infrastructure.

“It is not necessarily more space…but modern technology,” she said.

“All of our technical high schools will get a facelift with 21st Century, cutting-edge technology,” she pointed out.

She noted that the labs will provide students with modern, market-relevant skills, including 3D printing technology.

“Students can now make phone cases, glasses cases…anything they dream, they can now print…they can produce them for sale, which is why we speak about manufacturing. They can actually make things that we use every day,” she said.

Dr. Troupe said that the upgrades form part of a wider strategy to strengthen technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and address skills gaps identified by the private sector.

“The school system has to respond to [those demands],” she noted. “We have to get our children ready for the demands of the 21st Century, which starts today,” she emphasised.

In addition to upgrading laboratories, the Ministry is providing grants to schools to support materials for student experimentation, teacher training, and ongoing maintenance of the facilities.

“We give resources to students, we give additional grants for them and continue to provide upgrades every year…so we give the schools additional resources to maintain the labs so that they don’t deteriorate too fast,” Dr. Troupe told JIS News.

The digital construction lab at Stony Hill Technical High School will complement the institution’s Electronic Document Preparation and Management (EDPM) and Customer Engagement lab, which opened on January 9.

The Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information has announced several changes to the administration of the Primary Exit Profile (PEP), to accommodate students impacted by the passage of Hurricane Melissa last October.

The Ministry has also modified the National Standards Curriculum, which is used in primary-level institutions and up to the grade-nine level.

Acting Chief Education Officer, Terry-Ann Thomas-Gayle, made the disclosure during a post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister in Kingston, on Wednesday (January 14).

As it relates to the national curriculum, she explained that the Ministry has revised the targets or objectives that students need to meet to move to the next grade level.

“We have done a reprint of the curricula for grades one through nine, and we have sent it out in hard copies to the affected regions, and electronic copies are available for the other parishes,” Mrs. Thomas-Gayle shared.

She detailed that for Language Arts at the grade-six level, the objectives have been reduced from 138 to 90.

“In Mathematics for grade four, we went through and we looked at all the objectives for Mathematics at grade four. We had 124 objectives. We looked at the most essential objectives for Mathematics… that means the students must achieve these in order to move to the next grade level… and we saw where we had 48 such objectives,” she explained.

The Acting Chief Education Officer emphasised that while the objectives have been condensed to focus on those that are essential, there will be no disadvantage for students.

“I want to reassure the public that condensing to a smaller number of objectives, the students will not be at a loss,” she said.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Thomas-Gayle noted that following extensive consultations, the Ministry has finalised its sitting components for PEP.

At the grade-six level, students will sit the ability test, which will consist of 40 multiple choice items.

“The ability test looked at quantitative and verbal reasoning. You really need to be exposed to the curricula up to at least grade three to achieve this. So, this is not based on the grade-six curriculum,” the Acting Chief Education Officer explained.

She stated that grade-six students will also sit the Mathematics curriculum-based test (with numeracy items) and the Language Arts curriculum-based test (with literacy items).

The curriculum-based tests for Mathematics and Language Arts both consist of 60 multiple choice items.

The grade-six tests will be administered between April 29 and April 30, 2026.

“At grade five, our students will only do performance tasks in Language Arts and Mathematics. The performance tasks will see the students responding to four to six open-ended questions,” Mrs. Thomas-Gayle outlined.

She noted that the grade-five tests will be completed on June 10, 2026.

At the grade-four level, students will complete the literacy and numeracy tests on June 24, 2026.

Mrs. Thomas-Gayle emphasised that the placement mechanism for students moving to high schools will remain the same.

“Our grade-six students will be transitioning to high school using their grade-four PEP exam that they did in 2024, their grade-five PEP exam that they did in 2025, and the components being done at grade six in 2026,” she said.

The Acting Chief Education Officer noted that the Ministry will, however, use a new placement mechanism for grade-nine students transitioning to high schools, as the grade-nine achievement test for 2026 has been suspended.

“We have about 50 students maximum that we give this assessment to get to transition into high school,” she added.

Face-to-face classes have fully resumed at Lacovia Primary and Infant School in St. Elizabeth, after months of disruption caused by infrastructural damage from Hurricane Melissa, even as restoration works continue on sections of the compound.

This was confirmed by Principal, Stacia Williams Brown, who noted that the institution is grateful to have fully resumed classes.

She told JIS News that the institution initially operated on a rotation system after reopening in November following the hurricane’s passage adding, “now we have invited all our students back to school.”

The Principal reported that student attendance is steadily improving, with 293 students currently enrolled at the institution.

She added that efforts continue to locate other students who remain absent, having been displaced by the damage to the school.

Mrs. Williams Brown explained that some relocated to other parishes to stay with family members.

She outlined the extent of the damage sustained by the school, noting that it affected key facilities used daily by students and staff.

“Our students’ bathroom was damaged as well as our administrative block, the fence… quite a lot of damage here on the compound,” Mrs. Williams Brown told JIS News.

She indicated that restoration works, being spearheaded by the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information through the National Education Trust (NET), commenced in December and have been advancing steadily since then.

Mrs. Williams Brown said the school’s administration is “hopeful that within the next three months, we will be back in our office space.”

She expressed appreciation to the Ministry for its support, as well as to the contractors undertaking the rehabilitation work, noting that the school community remains encouraged by the assistance being provided.

Principals are being encouraged to utilise the Caribbean Examinations Council’s (CXC) School-Based Assessment (SBA) Concession, which is being offered to all Jamaican students for the May/June 2026 sitting.

The document outlines the components that can be removed from the process if a candidate is redoing his or her SBA.

Candidates have three or four months remaining to complete their SBAs in order to meet CXC’s extended teacher submission deadline of June 15.

“Consider every detail that’s in this document and try as hard as possible to allow the students to complete the school-based assessment,” urged Director of Operations, Dr. Nicole Manning, during Wednesday’s (January 7) CXC Press Conference, held at the Overseas Examinations Commission (OEC), in Kingston.

She advised that the document is only valid for use in Jamaica and will be made available to schools through the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information and should not be shared externally.

Noting that SBAs are completed over a two-year period at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) level, Dr. Manning said CXC is aware that some candidates have completed their SBAs.

“In fact, the principals did indicate in some instances that the candidates were very advanced for some schools, but we are also conscious that students lost their SBAs through water, they lost their homes and other things. We had to take that into consideration as a part of our duty of care,” she said, referring to the devastating impact of Hurricane Melissa on October 28.

Meanwhile, she indicated that CXC is also offering a concession in relation to the number of labs that need to be completed for science subjects.

“In the past, we had, say for example, 16 labs for physics. It may be reduced to, we would say, a minimum of eight. But, you do have guidelines as to what you need to do in line with completing those labs,” Dr. Manning said.