JIS: The Ministry of Education, Youth and Information is moving to transform its 11 youth information centres (YIC) across the island into innovation centres, as part of plans to foster entrepreneurship among young people in Jamaica.

State Minister, Hon. Floyd Green, tells JIS NEWS that the rebranding is being done through partnership with the Organization of American States (OAS) under its Democratizing Innovation in the Americas (DIA) Lab Project.

Launched in Jamaica in July 2017, the DIA Lab Project equips urban youth to be innovators by training them in cutting-edge technologies and giving them the tools necessary to transform their communities.

It targets young people, ages 16 to 30, particularly in vulnerable communities, with the hope of transforming them into critical, creative and innovative thinkers.

The YICs, which provide free access to the internet, serve as a focal point for the dissemination of information on youth issues and programmes including educational training opportunities.

Mr. Green notes that the DIA lab concept is well aligned with the Ministry’s vision for the youth centres.

“There are clearly similarities in what we want to do and what the OAS has been doing across the Americas in relation to their innovation labs, which has the same sort of focus on entrepreneurship and other things in terms of programming,” he says.

“It has the same outlook in terms of partnering with expert personnel to help train the young people so that they can do business plans and pitches, so that they can put together the documents that are needed to go out and seek funding,” he notes further.

“As such, we’ve started the discussion with the OAS to see how we can align what we have planned with what they have done, and benefit from their expertise to see how we can merge ideas and expand our concept,” he explains.

Mr. Green tells JIS NEWS that plans were already underway to launch a pilot in three centres across the parishes of St. James, Clarendon and St Catherine early this year.

The pilot phase will be used to test and develop the model that will be rolled out in the various centres.

Mr. Green notes that the rebranding will involve putting in additional personnel, such as persons with business training, who can help the young people, who have business ideas.

“It would call for additional human resource personnel in the space and also additional equipment to help our young people, who are interested in business,” he adds.

In terms of the next steps, the State Minister says the Ministry and the OAS will formalise a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will set out the different roles that each entity will play.

“This is especially in relation to see how we could jointly go out and source some funding… so we can have a more substantial expansion and probably, we can move the rest of the centres in a quicker time frame,” Mr. Green states.

He says the hope is that in the next two years “we will roll out into all centres and if we can get an even firmer relationship with the OAS, then we will be able to cut that time.”

YICs offer a wide range of services to young people. However, in the main, the services offered tend to be centred on career development, the promotion of healthy (sexual) lifestyles and personal empowerment.

Mr. Green tells JIS NEWS that the rebranding will include having a standardised programme for the YICs. He points out that the activities offered are largely set by the youth empowerment officers, who manage the facilities.

“One of the things we decided that we want to do was to standardise the programmes as far as possible to ensure that at least we could say that there is one flagship programme, which is offered across all the centres so that a person knows that if they are looking for ‘X’ they can find it in the youth centres,” he explains.

For more information about the project persons can contact the Ministry’s Youth Division at 922 – 1400.

CAPTION: State Minister in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, the Hon. Floyd Green

JIS: The Early Childhood Commission (ECC) is reporting success with its ‘Read Pon Di Cawna’ and Read Across the Region initiatives. Hundreds of children, their parents and early-childhood stakeholders have participated in both projects since the series began in September 2017.

Read Pon Di Cawna is being hosted in designated communities, while Read Across the Region targets early-childhood institutions within the educational regions. Community Relations Manager at the ECC, Tanisha Miller, told JIS News that “both activities are geared towards encouraging ECC staff, early-childhood institutions, parents and stakeholders to participate in reading and parenting activities at the early-childhood level across the island”.

Read Pon Di Cawna has, so far, been held in St. Catherine, St. Mary and Clarendon, while Read Across the Region was held in Regions Six, Two and Five. According to Miss Miller, the Commission believes that reading plays a key role in lifelong learning. The intention, therefore, is to instil a love for reading at the early-childhood level.

“The ECC has been going on the corners and in our schools to engage these children in reading and to encourage them to read,” she said.

The series will continue in 2018, with a joint Read Pon Di Cawna and Read Across the Region scheduled for Thursday, January 25. This will be held on Ocean Boulevard, across from the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) building in downtown Kingston, between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.

Miss Miller said more than 300 children are expected to attend, adding that Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, along with several prominent Jamaicans from the media faternity, the private sector and the entertainment industry, will be on hand to read and interact with the children.

CAPTION: Executive Director at the Early Childhood Commission (ECC), Karlene Degrasse- Deslandes (centre), interacts with children during one of the ECC’s ‘Read Pon Di Cawna’ sessions held on Guptar Lane, Annotto Bay, St. Mary, in 2017.

JIS: National Mathematics Coordinator, Dr. Tamika Benjamin, says discussions are under way towards increasing the number of scholarships offered to student-teachers who are pursuing science majors at the tertiary level.

She said the move is aimed at boosting student achievement in the science subjects, particularly chemistry and physics.

She pointed out that with the improved performance in mathematics, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information is looking to shift more resources into the sciences, where students are falling behind.

“Two years ago, the Ministry made a decision to invest $400 million per year for a period of four years to make scholarships available to persons interested in teaching maths and science. This year, in our discussions, we’re actually considering making a slight adjustment to the number of maths scholarships available, downwards, because we would have already exceeded our targets, and we are falling behind in some of the critical science areas,” she said.

“For me, it is encouraging that we can actually consider making that decision, because a few years ago, you would have been fighting to find people who would even want to teach [mathematics]. So to see that the maths programme is actually leaps and bounds ahead is encouraging,” she added.

Dr. Benjamin was addressing a press briefing on the implementation of the pilot of the Mathematics Enhancement Project (MEP) held on Wednesday (January 17), at The Mico University College in Kingston.

A total of 440 scholarships have been awarded to tertiary students under the Maths, Science and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (MS-TVET) Teacher Initiative for the 2017/18 academic year.

The support covers tuition, boarding, books and miscellaneous fees. Some students received an additional grant of $20,000 each.

Noting the improved performance in maths, Dr. Benjamin said that students are doing better in the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) and the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC).

“This year, we have 67 per cent mastery at the grade-four level, and that’s coming from our first sitting where we had 38 per cent mastery. When we look back at CSEC maths, we are currently at 52 per cent, and what is encouraging is that the actual sitting cohort is increasing in number. We are seeing an increase in the percentage of students passing, meaning that many more students are actually leaving our secondary schools with a pass in CSEC maths,” she explained.

She noted that what is especially heartening is that more children are thinking “outside the box”.

“Over the last two or three years, they’ve had to create multiple rubrics to mark the items, because our students, in increasing numbers, are inventing accurate strategies to answer the questions. So that is actually encouraging. It’s a sign that our students are going beyond the usual algorithms and finding methods and approaches to solve problems that are their own, but, most importantly, they are accurate,” she said.

Dr. Benjamin said the Ministry recognises that more work has to be done to improve reasoning and critical thinking.

“We will continue to work on improving teacher quality, but we must maintain at the forefront of our minds, that we build teachers’ capacity to support the development of the critical thinking skills of our students.”

The four-year MEP project (September 2017 to August 2020) is being implemented by The Mico University College, through the Caribbean Centre of Excellence in Mathematics Teaching (CCEMaT) located on the college campus.

It aims to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics at the primary level through innovative classroom strategies.

MEP will be piloted in five primary schools, namely, Allman Town, Clan Clarthy, and John Mills Infant, Primary and Junior High School in Kingston and St. Andrew; Devon, Manchester; and Mineral Heights, Clarendon.

MEP was developed by the Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching (CiMT) at Plymouth University in the United Kingston, which will assist in its implementation locally.

CAPTION: National Mathematics Coordinator in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Dr. Tamika Benjamin, addresses a press briefing at The Mico University College in Kingston on Wednesday, January 17.

JIS: Four schools in the parish of Clarendon are to receive additional funding from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information to undertake refurbishing and upgrading works.

They are Denbigh Primary, Denbigh High, Frankfield Primary and Infant, and Edwin Allen High.

Portfolio Minister, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, said a commitment has been made to provide the resources over the next two budget cycles.

He was speaking to JIS News after a tour of the institutions on Tuesday (January 16).

The projects to be undertaken include the building of an auditorium at Denbigh High; roof repair at Frankfield Primary and Infant; a new classroom block at Edwin Allen High to ease overcrowding; and enclosure of classroom space at Denbigh Primary.

Senator Reid, who was accompanied by senior administrators and technical staff from the Ministry, said the tour was important to get a first-hand look at the institutions and the work to be done while the funds are being put together.

During his stop at Denbigh High, he commended the administration for transforming the school into a “fine institution”.

He said the Ministry is committed to help fund the auditorium project, adding that the institution “deserves the facility”. He advised the school leadership to begin the preparatory work for the hall.

Senator Reid said he was pleased to see the school’s upgraded kitchen in operation, and to hear from the principal and staff that the investment has resulted in greater efficiency in the preparation of meals.

He told the students that they have no excuse for not attending school, as the Government is providing the resources for meals and transformation through the Programme of Advancement

Through Health and Education (PATH).

Meanwhile, he informed that the Government will be offering a full university scholarship to student, Twyla-Haye Bent, who, at the age of 10, sat English Language in the 2017 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC), scoring a grade two.

Stating that the achievement is exceptional, Minister Reid said “it is the type of success that must be used to show what the education system can do for personal and national growth. Education can empower people, and we want people to aspire for extraordinary things”.

The Education Minister also stopped at the Windsor School of Special Education, which serves students with intellectual disabilities between the ages of six and 18 years.

CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid (right), conducts a mathematics class at the Frankfield Primary and Infant School in Clarendon, when he visited the institution on January 16.

JIS: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, says he intends to establish an Infant Department at each primary school that is currently operating without one.

Speaking with JIS News during a visit to Jack’s Hill Primary School in St. Andrew on Monday (January 15), Senator Reid said it is imperative for all primary schools to have an Infant Department attached, and to ensure that it is operating based on the 12 operating standards outlined by the Early Childhood Commission.

He said the Infant Department at Jack’s Hill Primary School is a good example of what he hopes to see being operated at each primary school.

“This is the kind of standard that we are promoting. I’m very happy to see this particular environment well used. The facility looks very conducive to our precious infants, and I know that good work is being done here. This is the kind of environment we are trying to promote within our public schools,” the Minister said.

“The Early Childhood Commission has been pushing this with 12 standards (staffing, developmental/educational programmes, interactions and relationships with children, physical environment, indoor and outdoor equipment, health, nutrition, safety, child rights, interactions with parents and community members, administration and finance), so when we look at the facilities for infant schools, they are now similar to private institutions,” he told JIS News.

Senator Reid said the Ministry has started renovating some Infant Departments at primary schools across Jamaica as well as implementing some.

“We are using money from the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports and Education (CHASE) Fund to help establish these Infant Departments,” he said.

The purpose of the Minister’s visit was to announce that the Ministry has approved $10 million in the next financial year, to pave a roadway leading to the school and to construct a perimeter fence.

CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid (second left), speaks with (from left) teacher, infant department at Jack’s Hill Primary School, Shawn Thompson; the school’s Board Chairman, Jermain Nairne; and Principal, Duane Forbes, during his visit to the school in St. Andrew on January 15.

JIS: The Jack’s Hill Primary School in rural St. Andrew is to benefit from additional support from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information.

Portfolio Minister, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, has committed to provide $10 million for infrastructural works.

“We want to ensure that the perimeter of the school is enclosed. We want to approve $10 million, starting the next financial year, to do that plus pave the roadway coming down [and] to improve the environment of the school,” he said, during a visit to the school in rural St. Andrew on Monday, January 15.

He informed that additional teaching support will be provided for the institution, which consists of grades two and three as a merged class, and grades four, five and six as another class.

“I have also approved for them to get a teacher assistant, because this is a multi-grade school, which means there are several grades of students in one class to be taught by one teacher. That is very challenging, but, nonetheless, this is a good environment to learn to teach and practise your craft,” Mr. Reid noted.

The Education Minister said he would like to see greater use of technology in the classroom.

“That would help in the case of differentiating instructions. As a teacher, we could have students in the different grades doing different activities at a different time on their devices. That is something that we would like to work with the principal on,” he noted.

The Education Minister hailed the institution, which has an infant department, on achieving the Early Childhood Commission standards. He commended the well-kept classrooms as well as the availability of adequate educational tools for the students.

Minister of Justice and Member of Parliament for North East St. Andrew, Hon. Delroy Chuck, who was also on the tour, thanked the Minister for the support.

He said the improvements to be undertaken will transform the school and motivate more parents to send their children to the institution.

“This is a very small school, and it can be expanded. A lot of the students who could come here are actually going down further into Barbican. We are hoping that the population will increase when we improve the facilities here, and, with that, I’m sure the school can continue to serve the Jack’s Hill community even better. It is a good school and they’ve had quite a few successes, but we are hoping that it will continue to improve,” Mr. Chuck said.

Principal of Jack’s Hill Primary School, Duane Forbes, added his words of gratitude.

“I am really and truly blessed. I’m just anticipating blessings… . I’m truly grateful for the visit. I know that the community of Jack’s Hill will benefit in the long run, and we do this not for the likes but for the love,” Mr. Forbes told JIS News.

CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, interacting with grade-one students at Jack’s Hill Primary School in rural St. Andrew during his visit on Monday, January 15.

JIS: The Government is providing counselling and relief supplies for children and staff of the Walker’s Place of Safety in Kingston, following a massive fire Monday night (January 15) that claimed the lives of two children.

State Minister for Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Floyd Green, told JIS News this morning (January 16) that the other 34 children and staff have been temporarily relocated to a nearby church, and arrangements have been made for the delivery of supplies.

“The Walker’s Place of Safety was completely destroyed by fire late last night. The loss is quite devastating as two children died in the fire. Steps are being taken to contact the parents and to start counselling for them,” he told JIS News.

He said that counselling is being provided for the displaced children and staff because, “as you can imagine, they are completely devastated”.

He noted that “the priority now is to guide them through this difficult time and ensure that we get the essential items that they need. We have already started to get critical supplies, such as medication for those children who are ill. We are moving now to find a suitable location, so that we can move the children and ensure that they are more comfortable”.

Mr. Green said investigations have been launched to determine the cause of the blaze, which destroyed the privately owned facility located on Lyndhurst Road.

It serves as a transitional residence for children, generally up to 12 years old, who have been abandoned or removed from their homes because of unstable conditions.

“The fire service has also commenced their investigation. We are awaiting their report. The Child Protection and Family Services Agency will also do their own investigation to see what transpired,” Mr. Green told JIS News.

CAPTION: State Minister in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, the Hon. Floyd Green.

JIS: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid, is on a mission to create a national school bus system, which will provide transportation for students in all parishes.

Speaking at the signing of an $8 million Japan Grassroots Human Security Grant agreement with the Ambassador of Japan, His Excellency Hiromasa Yamazaki, on January 10 at the Office of the Prime Minister, Senator Reid said one of his dreams is to have a society where schools have buses assigned to them.

“We’re looking at an overarching plan to provide transportation for all students. We need 1,000 buses to cover the need of the schools. I have that particular aspiration of a comprehensive national school bus system for a number of reasons, not only for safety, but to get our students to school on time and in a managed and regulated way,” the Minister said.

“While we have this vision for the rural transportation system, we didn’t just sit back. We have committed over $204 million at the start of this academic year towards this particular rural bus system,” he added.

He emphasised that there is a great need for the national school bus system in rural areas, adding that students would be transported more safely, parents would save from the high cost of transportation, and there would be less burden on the rural transport operators with privately owned vehicles.

“The cost for transportation is extremely high in rural areas. We’re talking about small farmers who are essentially just trying to survive. There is a significant number of students in the rural areas who are on the Programme of Advancement through Health and Education (PATH), and they will need the transportation system,” the Minister argued.

Senator Reid pointed out that, on average, about 20 per cent of students are absent from school each day.

“In the recent Survey on Living Conditions, it wasn’t strange to us that an overwhelming majority of those who were interviewed said money was the main fault why they couldn’t send their children to school regularly,” he noted.

Senator Reid said he believes a new comprehensive national school bus system would support PATH.

“We’re doing a lot in trying to get the children to school [through PATH], trying to give them lunch for five days, trying to provide insurance, IDs and books. That’s wonderful, but if the children are not able to get to school, all of those efforts are for naught,” he said.

The grant will cover the cost to purchase a school bus for Oracabessa Primary School in St. Mary.

The Japan Grassroots Human Security Project was developed based on an alliance formed by the Embassy of Japan in Jamaica and the National Education Trust on April 20, 2015. This partnership is aimed at meeting education needs at the primary level in schools in need of assistance.

CAPTION: Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Senator the Hon. Ruel Reid (left), speaks at the signing of a grant agreement with the Japan Grassroots Human Security Project at the Office of the Prime Minister on January 10. Listening (from second left) are: Ambassador of Japan to Jamaica, His Excellency Hiromasa Yamazaki, and Principal, Oracabessa Primary School, Gregory Davis.