JIS: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, says the Government of Jamaica is willing to offer full scholarships to young people involved in crime and non-productive activities to enable them to pursue academics or skills training.

 

In an interview with JIS News at Excelsior Primary and Infant School in St. Andrew on Monday (September 3), during his tour of three schools at the start of the 2018/2019 academic year, Senator Reid said the Government is reaching out to these youth, through members of Parliament and government agencies that provide training opportunities.

 

“A part of my job is to make sure that our children have access to education to the highest level, and we have to work now with our members of Parliament, the Ministry of National Security and the community to now transition, to change the culture of violence,” he pointed out.

 

Senator Reid added that he wants to see more young people who engage in illegal activities take up training opportunities and become employed, thereby contributing as productive members of society.

 

“I know the members of Parliament have been encouraging many of these wrongdoers to come back to school and I am appealing to them, anybody… who is ready to go back to school. We want them to be educated and trained,” he said.

 

“The Government will make sure you have full scholarship to achieve your full potential, because we must transform Jamaica into a culture of productivity by the development of our human potential,” he noted.

 

In addition to Excelsior Primary and Infant, Minister Reid also visited Wolmer’s Boys and Jessie Ripoll Primary to observe their operations during the first day of school.

 

Minister Reid spoke with grade-six students at Jessie Ripoll and Excelsior Primary schools, who will be sitting the first Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examination next year, and encouraged them not to be fearful of the inaugural series of tests they will undertake.

 

CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid (right), offers words of encourgement to grade six students of Jessie Ripoll Primary School, during his visit to the instiution on Monday (September 3). Standing (at left) is Jessie Ripoll board chairman, Marcia Thwaites.

JIS: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, has expressed satisfaction with the start of the 2018/2019 academic year.

 

In an interview with JIS News on Monday (September 3), after visiting three schools in the Corporate Area – Wolmer’s Boys,’ Excelsior Primary and Infant, and Jessie Ripoll Primary – Minister Reid said that operations were off to a smooth start.

 

“I am very satisfied with what I’ve seen. I think full commendation should be given to the team [from the Ministry] and school administrators across the island,” he said.

 

Minister Reid informed that officials from the Ministry in the various regions across the island worked with school administrators to ensure that needs were satisfied and that the institutions had the necessary equipment and tools they required to operate effectively.

 

“For back-to-school, we actually started working from January on textbooks, repairs and furniture… . I’m very happy to see the schools are all generally ready,” he noted.

 

Meanwhile, during his visit to the schools, Minister Reid observed operations, including classroom lessons; liaised with the principals, teachers and students; and handed over copies of the National Standards Curriculum (NSC).

 

The curriculum places focus on project-based and problem-solving learning, with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and arts integrated at all levels.

 

At Wolmer’s Boys, he encouraged the students to “aim for the highest” and be respectful to their teachers and parents.

 

“I want to thank the hard-working teachers, because a lot of the outstanding successes that we can celebrate about Wolmer’s is because of the real hard, dedicated and outstanding work of the school’s teachers,” he said.

 

Minister Reid also spoke with grade-six students at Jessie Ripoll and Excelsior Primary, who will be among the cohort sitting the first Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examination next year, and encouraged them not to be fearful of the inaugural series of tests that they will undertake.

 

“[PEP] is really for us to assess the knowledge and competencies of our students. We need to have a valid assessment, a true reflection of our students’ capacity and ability, and we can build on their strengths and their weaknesses,” he pointed out.

 

CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid (left), speaking with grade-six students at Excelsior Primary School in St. Andrew, during his visit to the institution on Monday (September 3).

JIS: Some 1,007 cooks who prepare lunches for PATH beneficiaries are now being paid $323.8 million in salary directly from the Government, so that parents no longer have to worry about paying for their lunch.

 

Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, said there was a 47 per cent increase in the 2017/18 budgetary allocation to the PATH programme, and with parents asked to pay $50 daily for the lunches for the students, the Government decided to take over the payment of cooks’ salaries, so parents who are poor no longer have to pay it.

 

Senator Reid was addressing parents and teachers who attended a Sensitisation and Consultation Session at Glenmuir High School in Clarendon on August 28.

 

“If the child is hungry, he won’t learn, and we don’t want them to stay away from school because they have no lunch money. There should be no embarrassment, victimisation or discrimination. The children will get lunch five days a week,” the Minister said.

 

Senator Reid told the parents that in high schools where a concessionaire provides lunch, PATH recipients will also get their lunches from them.

 

“There are some concessionaires with whom we have worked out a formula between them and the school as to how to use additional funding support, because, as a policy, we are saying to schools, all the children who are vulnerable and poor must be supported by the Government,” he said.

 

On transportation, the Minister cited studies that showed some 20 per cent of students being absent from school because of transportation difficulties.

 

He said that the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), which now services some parts of St. Catherine, is highly subsidised, so the cost of transportation for parents in urban areas is much less than it is for those in rural Jamaica.

 

“We have built out capacity in 12 parishes, targeting the poorest of the poor, those who would not be able to send children to school because the bus fare is not there. We have given money to the school to contract private contractors to pick up your child from home, take them to school and back; so there is no excuse,” Senator Reid said.

 

CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, addresses Parent Sensitisation and Consultation Session, held at Glenmuir High School in Clarendon on August 28.

JIS: The National Parenting Support Commission (NPSC) will be rolling out its home-school relationship programme, ‘Stay Connected’, in three St. James-based high schools this academic year.

 

In an interview with JIS News, Chief Executive Officer at the NPSC, Kaysia Kerr, said the high schools will be selected after conducting a comprehensive analysis of the National Education Inspectorate (NEI) report.

 

This will be used to ascertain the level of parental involvement in students’ school life.

 

“We have the Stay Connected Programme in several high schools, and we intend now to add a few high schools in Montego Bay this year. We will select the high schools based on the NEI report that looks at what the parental involvement has been in particular schools, and we will use that to determine which three schools to add to the list of high schools where we have that programme in other regions,” she explained.

 

Ms. Kerr pointed out that the programme aims to empower parents with helpful tips on how to understand and handle the developmental issues associated with adolescence and maintaining a good relationship with their children throughout high school.

 

“We know that the exit exams for primary schools have become high-stake exams. Parents give a lot of support, especially at grade six. They want their children to go to their school of choice… and they [parents] are there every day staking out school compounds in support of their children… but there is a gradual waning of support when students enter high school,” she noted.

 

Ms. Kerr emphasised that this critical stage is when parents “must stick with their children” to discourage maladaptive behaviours.

 

The pilot for the Stay Connected initiative was launched in 2015 in three high schools – Norman Manley, Holy Trinity and Spanish Town – and has since expanded to include Dinthill Technical High and Papine High schools.

 

The programme is held in conjunction with the Commission’s Parent Mentorship programme, which provides support for guardians in positive parenting techniques through parent mentors.

 

CAPTION: Chief Executive Officer at the National Parenting Support Commission (NPSC), Kaysia Kerr. (File)

JIS: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, says infants who enrol in Brain Builder Centres will stand a better chance at acquiring National School Leaving Certificates and successfully read for their degrees at the tertiary level.

 

He was speaking at the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) Regional Focal Point Meeting for the Caribbean on Thursday (August 30), at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

 

“Those students [who start with the Brain Builders Programme] would have acquired those [cognitive] skills. They are ready to learn and they [will] read for their degrees, so I am saying it will empower,” Senator Reid said.

 

“By the time the child reaches age three, their whole cognitive construction would have already been far advanced… That is what I have discovered. That is what the experimenters [have] said,” the Minister added.

 

Senator Reid also noted that Brain Builder Centres will help students with identifying skills that they are comfortable with from the basic and primary schools, and be able to choose skill-based courses easily, which are being offered through the Career Advancement Programme (CAP).

 

“My mantra is to work this thing [for] every young person in Jamaica to feel that they can aspire and get to higher education. We are doing some reform in terms of higher education and … they can go to the alternative called the Career Advancement Programme (CAP). We’ll give you [students] a menu. You can do a composite or you can decide if you’re going to focus on the technical side,” he said.

 

The Jamaica Brain Builders Programme was launched at a cost of approximately $540 million by the Ministry, in partnership with the Early Childhood Commission (ECC) on July 6.

 

The objective of the programme is to reduce cognitive learning challenges among infants in the country. It is also a framework for action in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, which starts from conception in the womb to age two years.

 

Under this initiative, the ECC is responsible for establishing 126 Brain Builder Centres, with two in each constituency across the island.

 

Meanwhile, the National School Leaving Certificate will commence in September. It will consist of a certificate with data on the performance of students over their five years of secondary education, which will take into consideration their academic achievement, co-curricular participation and behaviour.

 

CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid (second left), speaking with (from left) Commonwealth of Learning (COL) Focal Point in Jamaica, Dr. Phylicia Marshall; President, COL, Professor Asha Kanwar and Vice President, COL, Mr. K Balasubramanian, before the start of COL’s Regional Focal Point Meeting for the Caribbean, at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on Thursday (August 30).

 

JIS: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, is assuring that all is in place for a smooth start to the new academic year, which officially begins on Monday (September 3).

 

“As part of our general preparations, school plants have been renovated, furniture and other equipment have been provided and, most important, the first tranche of operational grants have been sent to our schools in good time to allow for the smooth re-opening of our institutions,” he said.

 

The Minister, who was addressing a press conference at his National Heroes Circle office  in Kingston on Thursday (August 30), informed that a total of $8.4 billion, including the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) feeding grant, is being provided to secondary-level institutions for the school year.

 

He further noted that the disbursement of funds by the Ministry to all secondary institutions is being maintained at a maximum of $19,000 per student and special support in selected areas of up to $11,000 per student.

 

Senator Reid pointed out that for the 2018/19 academic year, the Government is “honouring our commitment to increase funding to primary, all-age and junior high schools…with a budget of $4.2 billion”.

 

Notably, for this academic year, the Government has also increased the maintenance grant for high schools to $500,000, up from $50,000.

 

Additional funding support will also be provided in the new school year to cover the payment for 1,007 cooks at primary and secondary schools, which amounts to $323.1 million.

 

The Government will also assist schools by providing payments totaling $887 million for temporary and part-time staff; and $105 million will be spent on upgrading schools’ canteens and the provision of equipment.

 

In terms of support for PATH students, the Minister informed that literature books are being provided for students on PATH at all levels of the secondary system at a cost of $120 million.

 

This is in addition to $26 million in payments for insurance for students on PATH and wards of the State at all levels.

 

The Government has also allocated $2,000 for each PATH student, to cover the cost for IDs and uniform-related items for those students at the all-age and junior high levels.

 

In addition, book vouchers have been provided for the neediest students to purchase back-to-school supplies; and 18 temporary Deans of Discipline will be provided to schools.

 

Other areas of support being provided by the Ministry include the provision of grants to cover Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programmes, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes, curriculum support, and other special requests.

 

In the meantime, Senator Reid informed that guidelines have been sent to schools regarding regular grants and parent contribution. He noted that schools have been reminded that the Ministry’s non-mandatory policy towards the payment of parents’ contribution remains in place.

 

“This applies to all groups, whether they are public sector or… whatever category…there are no mandatory fees. What we have done, particularly for high schools, is to expand the range of financial support to our schools, particularly where schools had to require payments to help with paying part-time teachers and extra staff,” the Minister said.

 

“Schools are adequately funded. If they are asking for extra money, then it must be seen as optional, not mandatory,” he added.

 

CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, responds to questions from journalists during a press conference at his National Heroes Circle offices in Kingston on Thursday (Aug. 30).

JIS: State Minister for Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Floyd Green, says curriculum reforms, which have been introduced by his Ministry, are being done to cater to the needs of the 21st century learner.

 

One such reform, Mr. Green noted, is the National Standards Curriculum (NSC), which aims to enhance the quality of education offered to learners and improve the general academic performance, attitude and behaviour of students.

 

“We started the NSC with our grades one and four students, and this curriculum centres around ensuring that our students learn to collaborate and are critical thinkers. These are the characteristics that our students need to survive in the 21st century,” Mr. Green said.

 

He was speaking at a breakfast meeting for principals, vice principals and heads of department, hosted by the University of the West Indies’ School of Education, at the Mona Visitors’ Lodge and Conference Centre on August 30.

 

It was held under the theme ‘Preparing teachers for 21st century learners’.

 

Mr. Green hailed the School of Education for hosting the timely forum, as it seeks to implement its own reform of the practicum component of its student-teacher training.

 

The reform, among other things, will enable student-teachers in their first semester of their final year to spend a longer, more enriching time in the classrooms in which they are assigned to teach before they graduate.

 

Meanwhile, Mr. Green informed that a stronger partnership between the Ministry and the University’s School of Education is needed, in order to overcome the challenge of placing student-teachers in schools.

 

“I think the University has to come in a bit earlier to meet with our team at the Ministry to work with our slate of schools to ensure they are amenable to student-teachers. This is a necessary path of the development of our learners,” he said.

 

Campus Registrar, Camille Bell-Hutchinson, in her remarks, noted that 21st century learners have to be equipped with skills that make them adaptable to the environment in which they live.

 

She said principals need to think differently about learning in the 21st century “to be able to support teachers when you go out there to help them become agents of change for 21st century students”.

 

Practicum Coordinator at the School of Education, Dr. Dian McCallum, said in a JIS News interview that the forum was geared at informing school administrators of the new changes to the student-teacher practicum this year and to enable the administrators to raise questions.

 

“When student-teachers go out to schools now they will be like full-time teachers because they are not only going to be teaching classes, but they should be attending staff meetings, going to departmental meetings and getting involved in parent-teacher conferences,” she said.

 

CAPTION: State Minister for Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Floyd Green (left), converses with University of the West Indies, Mona Campus Registrar, Camille Bell-Hutchinson, at a breakfast meeting hosted by the University of the West Indies’ School of Education, at the Mona Visitors’ Lodge and Conference Centre on August 30.

JIS: The Education Ministry will be engaging teachers and parents in a series of sensitisation sessions, beginning in September, to ensure a seamless implementation of the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examination.

 

This was noted by Chief Education Officer in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Dr. Grace Mclean, during a session with parents at York Castle High School in Brown’s Town, St. Ann, on August 29.

 

The PEP, which is slated to begin in the September 2018/19 academic year, will replace the 19-year-old Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) as the national secondary school entrance test.

 

According to Dr. McLean, come September 12, the Ministry will kick-start a teacher sensitisation session to furnish teachers with additional information on PEP as well as clarify any misunderstanding.

 

Those sessions, which will involve Education, Youth and Information Minister, Senator, the Hon. Ruel Reid, will continue until the end of September.

 

Meanwhile, in a bid to bring parents up to par with PEP, the Ministry will be organising a series of PEP camps starting at the end of September.

 

Dr. McLean explained that the camps will be held in selected areas across the island on the weekend, and will educate parents on the methodology to be used to guide students in completing PEP-related tasks.

 

“The setting will be one where you will come with your paper and your pens and your pencils and your computers, and we will have small groups where we will have performance task questions, and ability-type questions,” she said.

 

“We will have the objectives from the curriculum, we will show you how they are linked and we will give you the opportunity as parents and as teachers to create your own questions, to go through brainstorming sessions, and to understand the approach that you are expected to use to guide your children at home,” Dr. McLean added.

 

The Chief Education Officer said that on the release of the PEP performance task mock-examination results in the second week of September, the Ministry will commence coaching sessions with teachers who will administer PEP.

 

She added that there will be full deployment of literacy and numeracy specialists in schools at the start of the 2018/2019 academic year, and the Ministry’s technical education officers will be dispatched to schools that need the additional support, “to ensure that the implementation gets off to a good start”.

 

In the meantime, Senator Reid encouraged parents to play a role in getting children to become critical thinkers and problem-solvers.

 

“We cannot take the view now that our children need to be seen and not heard. For them to develop their capacity to think and become problem-solvers, we need to not only listen to them but reason with them. We need to have conversations, we need to discuss issues with them, get their viewpoint, and ask for their suggestion on how they would solve some of the problems that you have,” he told the parents.

 

CAPTION: Chief Education Officer in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Dr. Grace McLean (right), responding to questions posed by parents at a sensitisation session held at York Castle High School in Brown’s Town, St. Ann, on Wednesday (August 29). To her right is Regional Director, Region Three, Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Sophia Forbes Hall.

JIS: Educators in western Jamaica say they are approaching the 2018/2019 academic year with a renewed sense of optimism.

 

This optimism, they note, stems from the ever increasing willingness of parents to get involved in school activities, and also what they are calling “a more transparent and proactive approach” on the part of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information and its regional bodies in engaging teachers, principals and other stakeholders in meaningful dialogue.

 

“It sure helps and makes life a lot easier if there is the belief that all hands are on deck,” says Principal for the John Rollins Success Primary School in Barrett Town, St. James, Yvonne Williams-Wisdom.

 

“With the 1,000-plus students that are expected to be roaring through our corridors come next Monday (September 3), of course we have had to do some extensive preparations… and which we could never have accomplished without the help of our school community,” she tells JIS News.

 

Mrs. Williams-Wisdom further notes that the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information must be commended for “its unwavering commitment” to the continuation of the lunch and breakfast programmes for needy students and also for being there to assist with “our preparations”.

 

“I must also send a big shout-out to our parents who have been there every step of the way. Of course, we will still have our fair share of challenges, but from where I sit, I am confident we are ready for the start of the new school year,” she says.

 

For her part, Vice-Principal of Godfrey Stewart High School in Westmoreland, Emily Ricketts, says while challenges continue, one of the main pressure points is the increasing number of requests by students and their parents for transfer to her school.

 

“Godfrey Stewart has emerged as a school of choice for many students in Westmoreland. Unfortunately, especially so close to the start of back-to-school, we are unable to accommodate many of the transfer requests we have been getting,” she says.

 

Ms. Ricketts tells JIS News that because of early preparations throughout the summer, the school is well prepared to open its doors for students come Monday.

 

“We are all very positive and excited about the prospects of a very good school year,” she adds.

 

Over at Maldon Primary in Maroon Town, St. James, optimism for the new school term could not be any higher. “We continue to have our fair share of problems with water and also the need for some infrastructural upgrade at our facility,” Principal Audrey Bernard-Kilbourne explained.

 

“We, however, have been good and adept at working with what we have, and our dedicated teachers and students are ready for whatever lies ahead. Yes, we are ready for the new school term,” she says.

 

In the meantime, over in Montego Bay at Cornwall College, Principal, Michael Ellis, says expectations are also high.

 

“September morning will be a new day for Cornwall College,” he told the gathering at a recent graduation ceremony for the Cornwall College Class of 2018 at the Montego Bay Convention Centre.

 

The Principal notes that the new school term will be seeing the ushering of a new master plan –‘Operation Regain and Retain’ –a plan aimed at returning Cornwall College to its famed glory days.

 

CAPTION: Students from across the western region at a joint Ministry of Education, Youth and Information and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade symposium at the William Knibb High School in Falmouth, Trelawny.

JIS: Cabinet has approved the awarding of a contract, valued US$1,941,848.34, to Carlong Publishers Limited to supply and distribute textbooks for students in grades one to three islandwide, under the Government’s 2018/19 Primary Textbook Programme.

 

The company has also been awarded a contract in the sum of $110,593,387.65 to procure and distribute textbooks for students under the National Textbook Loan Scheme for the new academic year.

 

This was disclosed by Education, Youth and Information Minister, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, during Wednesday’s (August 29) post-Cabinet media briefing at Jamaica House.

 

He advised that Carlong is one of three companies contracted under the National Textbook Loan Scheme for 2018/19.

 

The others are Kingston Bookshop Limited and Book Wizard Limited, which have been awarded contracts valued $210,517,535.14 and $65,587,200, respectively

 

Meanwhile, Senator Reid advised that Cabinet approved the annual reports and audited statements of seven State entities for tabling in Parliament.

 

These are the 2016/17 annual reports and audited statements for the Casino Gaming Commission, Kingston Freezone Company Limited, Rural Agricultural Development Authority, and Nutrition Products Limited; the 2016/17 annual reports of the Overseas Examinations Commission and the Management Institute for National Development; and the 2017/18 annual report of the National Task Force Against Trafficking in Persons.

 

CAPTION: Education, Youth and Information Minister, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid (left), converses with Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, Hon. Fayval Williams, at Wednesday’s (August 29) post-Cabinet press briefing held at Jamaica House.