Twenty-nine Programme of Advancement through Health and Education (PATH) beneficiaries have been commended for their outstanding academic performance.

The top-female and male students were selected from the seven education regions, based on the results of their 2023 Primary Exit Profile (PEP) and Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations.

They were recognised by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security during Thursday’s (April 11) PATH Top Achiever’s Awards Ceremony.

The event was held at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston under the theme ‘Celebrating Empowerment through Education’.

Primary awardees received a plaque, a $25,000 book voucher and a cheque of similar value, while secondary students were presented with a plaque, and a cheque and book voucher valued $50,000 each.

A former beneficiary, Jordon Freeman, was recognised with the PATH Trailblazer Award for excelling in his academic and career pursuits.

In his keynote address, Portfolio Minister, Hon. Pearnel Charles Jr., said the Ministry plans to strengthen its partnership with the education sector as it undertakes an overhaul of PATH.

“We are doing this with a view to ensuring that we address the challenges that have been exposed, so that we can provide a system that gives maximum support to our children,” he stated.

The Minister noted that the PATH beneficiaries’ success stories fuel his commitment to lead the transformation that will continue to serve Jamaica’s most vulnerable.

“Our goal is to create a more responsive, more transparent and a more efficient and effective PATH. We want to ensure that the more than 300,000 beneficiaries are all excelling,” Mr. Charles said.

For his part, State Minister, Dr. the Hon. Norman Dunn, pointed out that since 2002, PATH has been a cornerstone of Jamaica’s social-assistance efforts.

“The achievements that we… witness today bear testament to the programme’s resilience and the collective will of our nation to ensure that no one is left behind,” he said.

Dr. Dunn charged the awardees to continue to emulate examples of resilience and sound character.

In her remarks, Minister of Education and Youth, Hon. Fayval Williams, said the Government remains committed to supporting vulnerable students.

She commended the awardees and urged them to explore their potential for greatness through technical and vocational skill areas, academia, sports, entertainment, science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics or any discipline of their choice, “with the same tenacity and rigour you applied to the exams”.

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, says conflict management should form a part of the curricula at schools as a means of reducing violence in the society.

Addressing students and teachers at Manchester High School in Mandeville on Friday (January 12), Prime Minister Holness said the principles of conflict resolution and management are critical to violence reduction and prevention, particularly among youth.

He referenced data indicating that a significant percentage of the shootings and murders are committed by young males under 24 years, adding that they are predominantly the victims of violence.

“We have a problem with resolving conflicts… we have a problem with violence. But we also have a problem with our young men [being] in conflict and using violence [to resolve it] and being the victims of violence.

“Governments usually try not to get too involved in regulating households, even in how they discipline children. But the social problems that we have, have become so challenging, they are now at crisis proportion that the Government has to be direct and instrumental in dealing with this problem of violence in a frontal way,” the Prime Minister stated.

Consequently, he maintained that “we need to take a different approach to solving conflicts; we can’t use violence to solve it.”

“We are going to have to incorporate the schools now, to deliberately teach in the curriculum how to manage conflict. It is going to have to be a curriculum subject,” the Prime Minister emphasised.

Meanwhile, Mr. Holness said there will be greater collaboration with the National Parenting Support Commission (NPSC) and educational institutions to reinforce best principles of conflict resolution.

“There has to be a solid link between the home and the school. What is being taught in the schools must also be reinforced in the homes. So, yes, the two-pronged approach… we will be dealing with the schools directly about treating with conflict and about dealing with violence and building peace; and through the National Parenting Support Commission, we will also be carrying this message to parents to see a transformation of our society,” he stated.

Mr. Holness encouraged the students to be Ambassadors for peace, noting that they will be instrumental to Jamaica’s continued growth and development.

“You are going to be the ones to inherit a properly run and structured economy, and you are going to grow it. You are going to create the labour force that will attract the investment that will [transform] Jamaica into a first world country. But on the other hand, we need good citizens. We need people who will respect the law, we need people who will become good parents, we need people who will take a peaceful stance in resolving conflict.

So as we have worked on the economy and building the productivity of the country… we must now work on the person, the human being,” he underscored.

Prime Minister Holness was joined on the visit to the school by Member of Parliament, Manchester Central, Rhoda Moy Crawford, and other stakeholders.

The Ministry of Education and Youth is preparing the procurement to enable system-wide installations and coordination of security cameras across the education system.

Portfolio Minister, Hon. Fayval Williams, made the disclosure during a statement to the House of Representatives on Tuesday (January 16).

A survey conducted in July 2023 showed 154 schools with a total of 1,955 cameras.

“This year, an additional eight schools have benefited from $15 million in grants to procure CCTV cameras that will improve safety and security at their schools,” Mrs. Williams stated.

The Minister also informed that the Ministry, in collaboration with the Ministry of Justice, will be ramping up restorative justice practices in schools along with conflict resolution.

Approximately 3,600 participants across 120 schools will benefit from this training.

Mrs. Williams pointed out that the team at the Ministry is looking forward to continuing the dialogue with the Ministry of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport to develop an expanded rural transportation programme that will benefit more than the current 7,500 students.

“This programme currently costs approximately $390 million annually,” the Minister noted.

Meanwhile, 150 students across 10 secondary schools will benefit from Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) training, made possible by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) – Positive Pathways to Guidance Counsellors and Social Workers – within the targeted schools.

“CBT training raises awareness of depression, anxiety, personality disorders and other socio-emotional issues,” Mrs. Williams said.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education and Youth, Dr. Kasan Troupe (seated, right), and Chief Education Officer, Terry-Ann Thomas-Gayle (seated, left), accept a gift from Boston College student, Justin Smith (seated, centre). The occasion was a courtesy call from a Boston College delegation, at the Ministry’s main office in Kingston on Tuesday (January 9).

With the establishment of a smart room, learning should improve at the Homestead Primary and Infant School in St. Catherine.

Recently, the Digicel Foundation gifted the school with the facility at a cost of US$60,000. It is equipped with 12 laptops, 12 tablets, a smart board, a printer, air-conditioning units and is furnished with desks and chairs and can accommodate 24 students at a time.

“This means that Homestead is on a new path for learning, because the students are now into technology a lot, and learning will go up. I expect reading to go up, numeracy level, literacy level – all of them will go up with this smart room. They (students) will have to treat everything in the room with care, so that generations to come will have access to the facility,” said grade-four teacher at the school, Shauna-Kaye Dehaney, in an interview with JIS News.

Reading teacher at the institution, Neisha Davis Carr, said integration of school lessons into technology has become very necessary for students since the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19), and teaching with the various devices “will help them to understand better, because they are using something that they are very familiar with”.

“I am expecting higher grades, and more exciting students,” she said, adding that attendance should also improve.

Meanwhile, Head Girl, Ainsley-Ann Wright, said it is now “easier for the teachers to teach, and I am happy because it is helping students in the school, and I want to thank Digicel for creating this smart room”.

Prefect, Analdo White, said students will learn more in the smart room, and they “need to take care of it, because the future students will need it to understand their work”.

Another student, Paris Newton, said she is overjoyed for the “smart room, because it is going to benefit us a lot”.

“Some kids learn more when they are face-to-face with a tablet or a television,” she said.

For Kevesha Dias, the benefits from the facility will be great. “I look forward to coming to school, and going into the smart room,” she said.

The smart room initiative forms part of Digicel Foundation’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) project, which is aimed at helping to bridge the digital divide.