JIS: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, has announced that grade-five students will sit the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) grade-six mock examinations in June.

 

In an interview with JIS News, Senator Reid said all the necessary arrangements have already been made for students islandwide to sit the examinations, of which they will be the first cohort to officially sit in 2019.

 

“We’re just working on the final Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) in March and then we will ramp up PEP,” Senator Reid said.

 

The Minister explained that administrators of schools and parents can expect ongoing updates regarding PEP, and reassured that there is no need for them to be alarmed about the new examination process.

 

“The first big ramp-up for PEP is to distribute what we call ‘learning material’ to schools and parents alike in their preparation for their PEP assessment in June, so people will become familiar with the type of questions and assessment that we will do under PEP,” he said.

 

PEP, which will replace GSAT as the national secondary-school entrance test, is intended to provide a better and more complete profile of students’ academic and critical-thinking capabilities at the end of primary-level education. It comprises a Performance Task Test, Ability Task Test and a Curriculum-Based Test.

 

The PEP will be rolled out on a phased basis beginning in September 2018, with students who are now in grade five to be the first cohort. They will do only the grade-six components in 2019.

 

Students who are currently in grade four will do their grade-five performance task in 2019, and in 2020 they will do the grade-six components.

 

Students who are currently in grade three will be the first cohort that will have a complete profile generated. This means that they will do the grade-four performance task section in 2019, grade-five performance task in 2020 and all grade-six components in 2021.

 

The PEP grades will be made available to schools in the third week of June every year.

 

CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, addresses a Primary Exit Profile (PEP) Town Hall Meeting at Jamaica College in December 2017.

JIS: Thousands of students from educational institutions across Jamaica will celebrate Jamaica Day on Friday, February 23.

 

Senior Education Officer in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information and Chairman of the Jamaica Day Planning Committee, Marlon Williams, told JIS News that Jamaica Day 2018 will be observed under the theme ‘Celebrating Jamaica: Nurturing our Natural and Cultural Heritage’.

 

“Every year the Jamaica Day theme starts with the stem ‘Celebrating Jamaica’, because the Day is all about celebrating Jamaica, land we love. This year’s theme is really to bring about an awareness of Jamaica’s cultural and natural heritage and to encourage not only the students but every single Jamaican here and abroad to protect it,” he said. Mr. Williams explained that schools are allowed to plan activities based on their interpretation of the theme. For example, they may want to highlight practices and ways in which the environment can be protected, or create innovations through technology that can be used to protect aspects of the environment and preserve the cultural heritage. On the day, Principals will introduce the student who is assigned as the culture agent to the school population. This will be followed by the reading of the official Jamaica Day Proclamation at 9:00 a.m.to signal the start of the day’s activities. All radio and television stations are being encouraged to have a student read the proclamation simultaneously with the schools.

 

The Proclamation can be accessed by logging on to www.moeschools.edu.jm, the Ministry’s portal in the Civic Citizenship and Culture in Education Programme folder.

 

Mr. Williams said that while the day will be celebrated in all schools, Munro College in St. Elizabeth will be the featured school that will get national attention.

 

“The boys at Munro College will have on display their innovations depicting the theme, and, through partnerships with several organisations, will showcase these to Jamaica,” he said.

 

Mr. Williams noted that each educational region will select a focus school, which will lead the Jamaica Day charge in the regions. For Region 1, the focus school will be Golden Spring Primary in Kingston; Region 2, Port Antonio Primary in Portland; Region 3, St. Hilda’s High School, in St. Ann; Region 4, Green Pond High in St. James; and in Region 6, Old Harbour Primary in St. Catherine.

 

The Ministry has also partnered with the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport in the Culture Passport programme; therefore, the Culture Ministry will be promoting this initiative and issuing culture passports to students on the day. The culture passport allows students access to heritage sites across the country at a discounted cost or free of charge where applicable. Mr. Williams is appealing to Jamaicans here and in the diaspora to don the Jamaican colours – black, green and gold – or bandana on the day to celebrate and show their appreciation for the culture and natural heritage. Jamaica Day, which is part of the Culture in Education programme, was instituted in the nation’s schools by the Ministry of Education in an effort to celebrate what is called ‘Jamaicanness’ and the country’s contribution to the world.

 

CAPTION: Chairman of the Jamaica Day Planning Committee and Senior Education Officer at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Marlon Williams, giving an overview of Jamaica Day at the launch recently.

JIS: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, has commended the HEART Trust/NTA for preparing Jamaicans for existing and emerging technical jobs, through diversification of its programme offerings.

 

Speaking at a welcome dinner for international delegates participating in the National Careers Week (NCW) and Skills Competition at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on February 19, Senator Reid said technical skills certification is critical in moving the country forward.

 

He noted, therefore, that it is the skills and competencies of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) that will prepare students for the technology-driven future.

 

“Thank God we have HEART Trust/NTA to the rescue, because you are going to train and certify persons for the 10,000 jobs in Vernamfield; the 67,000 jobs coming out of the JISCO/Alpart economic zone, the tourism sector that is booming and the BPO sector. So, Jamaica is poised for great development,” the Minister said.

 

He added that with training and certification, the Jamaican workforce will be strategically positioned to take advantage of the investment opportunities in the country.

 

“It also impacts on our investment profile and attractiveness because, through JAMPRO, that is what we signal in terms of our workforce readiness, so we will attract even more higher investments if we can market to the world that we have a highly trained and skilled workforce,” he said.

 

Senator Reid said the traditional professions are becoming more saturated and will not necessarily generate significant income in the future.

 

In addition, he said with advancements in technology, some of the professions will not be available within the next five to 10 years.

 

Senator Reid noted that the NCW and Skills Competition is part of a Government-led intervention aimed at transforming Jamaica into a skills-driven society.

 

More than 6,000 students will put their technical abilities on display at the 2018 National Careers Week and Skills Competition to be held from February 18 to 23 at the National Arena.

 

It will feature technical and vocational education and training (TVET) students in the areas of construction and building technology, manufacturing and engineering technology, creative arts and fashion, and transportation and logistics.

 

Among the skills to be showcased are welding, electronics, visual merchandising, graphic design technology, computer-aided design and cooking.

 

This year’s staging will see the introduction of a suite of skills, including freight forwarding and logistics, mobile application development, digital animation and robotics.

 

CAPTION: C3 Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, addresses the welcome dinner for international delegates participating in the National Careers Week and Skills Competition at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on February 19.

JIS: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, has reported that there has been a decrease in the rate of youth unemployment over the last year.

 

“Youth unemployment is trending down by seven per cent over the last year. More youth between 16 and 18 [years] are in education training. We’ve seen some 8,500 additional full-time students and 3,500 part-time, and that’s very good,” Mr. Reid said.

 

He was addressing the inaugural Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Leaders’ Summit and Youth Forum at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on February 20.

 

The Minister emphasised that the Ministry is determined to reduce the rate of youth unemployment further in 2018 and beyond.

 

Earlier this year, the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) announced that the unemployment rate was at 10.4 per cent, the lowest it has been since October 2008. STATIN also stated in January that the youth unemployment rate of 25.4 per cent was also the lowest since January 2008.

 

Senator Reid said he intends to build an army of skilled youth across Jamaica, because skilled workers make Jamaica more marketable

 

“We are now in the fourth industrial revolution, which is high-tech, and so we need now not to have an army of unskilled and untrained labour, but we will now need an army of fully trained and highly skilled persons,” he said.

 

The inaugural TVET Leaders’ Summit and Youth Forum is one of numerous events being held as part of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information’s National Careers Week, being recognised between February 18 and 23.

 

The Week will highlight a range of career and skill-training opportunities for youth. On Saturday and Sunday, February 17 and 18, church services were held across the island to share the National Careers Week and Skills Competition message.

 

On February 19, there was a Jamaica Library Service Expo, which consisted of displays at each of the 14 Parish Libraries of the various career paths persons can pursue.

 

Between February 20 and 21, there will be a two-day National Skills Competition at the National Arena in Kingston, with approximately 190 competitors, including 36 from secondary schools, 11 from the Career Advancement Programme (CAP) and 13 HEART Trust/NTA competitors, Skills Demonstrations, Try-a-Skill, and an Innovation in Skills (InnoSkill) Competition between 13 primary schools.

 

CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid (left), greets Chief Executive Officer, World Skills Americas, Professor Roberto Spada, during the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Leaders’ Summit and Youth Forum held at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on Tuesday (February 20).

JIS: A sum of $27.8 million has been earmarked for the ‘Support for Sustainability of Education Sector Reform’ project in the 2018/2019 Estimates of Expenditure now before the House of Representatives.

 

The objective of the project, implemented in September 2017, is to support the Government of Jamaica’s efforts to improve the performance of the education sector by assisting the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information to improve coordination across the system.

 

The funds allocated for the new fiscal year will support interventions at the early-childhood level, teachers’ colleges, and provide technical support to the Department of School Services (DSS).

 

At the early-childhood level, a consultant will be engaged to identify and develop a plan of action for the strengthening of partnership between the Early Childhood Commission and the National Parenting Support Commission, while training workshops will be conducted to benefit various stakeholders.

 

For the teachers’ collages, consultants will be hired to undertake improvements to the internal quality-assurance systems of 10 institutions.

 

Focus will be placed on building capacity for teacher education in numeracy and science, including provision of resources to support instruction and improve the ability of training institutions to screen students.

 

The support to the DSS will see experts being engaged to support the Alternate Pathway for Secondary Education (APSE), and staging of workshops to aid in the implementation of new approaches.

 

The project is being jointly funded by the Government of Jamaica and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and is slated to end in March 2020.

 

CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid. (FILE)

JIS: The Government of Jamaica has provided $461 million for continued implementation of the education transformation programme under the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information.

 

The allocation, which is contained in the 2018/2019 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives, will provide for execution of National Standard Curriculum (NSC) workshops for grades two, three, five and six; complete the revision of the National Assessment Programme (NAP) for grades two, six and nine; and commence the transition of staff to the modernised structure.

 

It will also provide for implementation of the human resource, school management, and documentation and file management systems; and support the modernisation legislative agenda, as well as policies on special education, security and safety, school improvement and placement.

 

Started in March 2010, the programme, which is being funded by the Government in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), aims to transform and modernise the education system.

 

It will seek to provide approximately 2,100 additional secondary-school spaces in an effort to support the Ministry’s policy to expand compulsory education from ages 16 to 18, operationalise new agencies that are key to improving capacity for delivering high-quality education, and set up mechanisms to mobilise additional resources for the education sector.

 

A number of targets were achieved up to December 2017 and include roll-out of the NSC at grades one, four and seven to nine; 75 per cent completion of the National Assessment Programme (NAP) revision for grade six, five per cent at grade two and 10 per cent at grade nine; consultation on the drafted Special Education Policy; and the completion and preparation of a concept note for implementation of the ‘School to Work’ transition and APEX programme.

 

In addition, select Ministry offices were refurbished and a new system was procured to improve efficiency at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information.

 

The programme was originally slated to be completed in March 2014, but has since been extended to December 2018.

 

CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid. (FILE)

JIS: The Government has allocated a sum of $466 million to construct new classrooms for secondary schools and ramps for disabled students.

 

Details are outlined in the 2018/2019 Estimates of Expenditure, tabled in the House of Representatives on February 15.

 

The new classrooms will be constructed under the Education Transformation Programme (ETP) with the objective of alleviating the shift system and overcrowding in secondary schools in the 14 parishes.

 

According to the Estimates, projects will be carried forward from the 2017/2018 fiscal year at Papine High, Norman Manley High, Mount St. Joseph’s High, Cumberland High, Westwood High and Sydney Pagon High Schools, under the ETP.

 

Additionally, five schools will benefit from new projects under the Programme with the construction of new classrooms on their campuses. These institutions are Maldon High, Spanish Town High, Inswood High, Muschette High and Eltham High Schools.

 

Disabled students will also benefit, as ramps will be constructed at 25 high schools across the island.

 

The National Education Trust Limited (NET) will be responsible for the provision of the new classrooms and the ramps in schools.

 

The NET is a Government of Jamaica company, which is limited by guarantee and is a registered charitable organisation that mobilises financial and quality resources for schools in Jamaica. Since its inception in 2010, NET has developed a track record for efficiency and adherence to quality standards, to the satisfaction of both donors and beneficiaries. 

 

In addition to these projects that are to be implemented by NET, the organisation will be responsible for the installation of improved sewerage systems in 97 primary schools, renovating and creating infant schools across the island, the Solar Systems Project in Schools and the establishment of three diagnostic centres in colleges.

 

CAPTIONS: Additional classrooms constructed at the Discovery Bay All-Age School, to remove the institution from the shift system. They were built through the Jamaica Social Investment Fund’s (JSIF) Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) programme. (File)

JIS: The Government has allocated a sum of $466 million to construct new classrooms for secondary schools and ramps for disabled students.

 

Details are outlined in the 2018/2019 Estimates of Expenditure, tabled in the House of Representatives on February 15.

 

The new classrooms will be constructed under the Education Transformation Programme (ETP) with the objective of alleviating the shift system and overcrowding in secondary schools in the 14 parishes.

 

According to the Estimates, projects will be carried forward from the 2017/2018 fiscal year at Papine High, Norman Manley High, Mount St. Joseph’s High, Cumberland High, Westwood High and Sydney Pagon High Schools, under the ETP.

 

Additionally, five schools will benefit from new projects under the Programme with the construction of new classrooms on their campuses. These institutions are Maldon High, Spanish Town High, Inswood High, Muschette High and Eltham High Schools.

 

Disabled students will also benefit, as ramps will be constructed at 25 high schools across the island.

 

The National Education Trust Limited (NET) will be responsible for the provision of the new classrooms and the ramps in schools.

 

The NET is a Government of Jamaica company, which is limited by guarantee and is a registered charitable organisation that mobilises financial and quality resources for schools in Jamaica. Since its inception in 2010, NET has developed a track record for efficiency and adherence to quality standards, to the satisfaction of both donors and beneficiaries. 

 

In addition to these projects that are to be implemented by NET, the organisation will be responsible for the installation of improved sewerage systems in 97 primary schools, renovating and creating infant schools across the island, the Solar Systems Project in Schools and the establishment of three diagnostic centres in colleges.

 

CAPTIONS: Additional classrooms constructed at the Discovery Bay All-Age School, to remove the institution from the shift system. They were built through the Jamaica Social Investment Fund’s (JSIF) Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) programme. (File)

JIS: Ninety-seven primary schools are to benefit from improved sewerage systems under a Sanitary Block Project, which will be funded by the Government in the 2018/2019 fiscal year, at a cost of $30 million.

 

The project will be implemented by the National Education Trust Limited (NET), as outlined in the 2018/2019 Estimates of Expenditure, tabled in the House of Representatives on February 15.

 

The NET is a Government of Jamaica company, which is limited by guarantee and is a registered charitable organisation that mobilises financial and quality resources for schools in Jamaica. Since its inception in 2010, NET has developed a track record for efficiency and adherence to quality standards, to the satisfaction of both donors and beneficiaries. 

 

Under the Sanitary Block Project, NET will be responsible for the installation of improved sewerage systems in 97 primary schools. It will also commence and complete the installation of improved sewerage systems at an additional 11 schools across Jamaica.

 

Over the years, the Ministry has implemented numerous Sanitary Block Projects in partnership with other organisations, with the objective of reducing the number of schools that still depend on the old-fashion system of pit latrine.

 

CAPTION: Grade 4 students of Chetolah Park Primary School