A total of 173 secondary-level institutions across the island will be provided with 10,000 laptops, valued at $4.3 million, to outfit their computer laboratories.

The initiative is being undertaken by E-Learning Jamaica Company Limited (e-LJAM).

The devices will assist students in preparing for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) and also help in developing skills in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM).

Beneficiary institutions are those that would have received desktops under a project, which started in 2006, to equip high schools with computer labs and devices.

Many of the desktops provided are now obsolete and e-LJAM is replacing them with laptops.

Holy Trinity High became the first institution to receive devices with the official handover of the first 30 of 68 laptops at the school in Kingston on Wednesday (March 15).

The other 38 laptops, which will be presented to the school shortly, will outfit a second lab that is being retrofitted and a half-room computer lab.

Minister of Education and Youth, Hon. Fayval Williams, in her remarks at the handover ceremony, said the Ministry is committed to providing adequate resources to improve student academic outcomes.

She pointed out that coinciding with the laptop donation is the provision of 500,000 Microsoft Office 365 licences to students and educators in public schools.

The licence will allow students to access Microsoft productivity tools, including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, One Note and OneDrive.

In his remarks, Minister of Science, Energy and Technology, Hon. Daryl Vaz, said the education sector will continue to adapt to modern technologies, with a focus on STEAM.

“STEAM is the way of the future; there’s no avoiding it. A country’s growth is directly impacted by its ability to adapt and solve problems, which is why the emphasis on STEM education is an imperative,” he pointed out.

Principal of Holy Trinity High, Father Carl Clarke, said he was pleased that the computers were being provided before the commencement of the CAPE and CSEC examinations in May this year.

“We are indeed grateful for this gift. We commit ourselves to taking care of them and using them to assist with the continued academic development at our school because we recognise that only the best is good enough,” he said.

Chief Executive Officer of e-LJAM, Andrew Lee, informed that over the last three years, the entity has delivered 150,000 technology devices to the most vulnerable students across the island.

He noted that work will continue to help “prepare our young people to adapt effectively to a changing world, largely dependent on technology”.

The Road Safety Unit (RSU) and the Island Traffic Authority (ITA) are actively engaging high-school students for the development of defensive driving skills and knowledge of the road code.

This initiative, dubbed the Road Safety Education in Schools Programme, is one of several measures being used to make the roadways safter for both motorists and pedestrians.

Director of the RSU, Deidre Hudson-Sinclair, told JIS News that the students who participate in the programme get a “full understanding” of the road code and how to drive safely, as the Ministry of Transport and Mining and its agencies are very concerned with many of the unsafe practices of some male drivers between 19 and 25 years of age.

“A lot of young men are at risk, so we recognise the importance of starting early,” she said, adding that schools wishing to be on the programme can contact the agencies at [email protected] and [email protected].

Mrs. Hudson-Sinclair said they want the students to learn the code, do the test and get involved in the programme.

“It is the aim of the RSU and the ITA to have a change in the culture, a positive driving culture, and it is part of a larger mechanism to get a new generation of drivers having critical skills, helping to avoid crashes and recognising that we have to drive for ourselves and the other persons on the road,” she added.

As part of the programme, the agencies, with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), have developed the Jamaica Adolescent Learner Driver Curriculum, which seeks to impart safe driving among the young population and to decrease the level of risk taking that is popular among them and which has accounted for many fatalities on the roads.

Under the new Road Traffic Act, persons seeking to obtain a provisional driver’s licence (learner’s permit), must take a road code test before it is granted, and within six months, they must successfully complete another test to obtain the driver’s licence.

Mrs. Hudson-Sinclair said the crashes on the roads can be avoided, as speed is a major factor, and drivers must consider the lives of others while they are in control of the vehicles.

She also called on pedal cyclists and pedestrians to be more visible at nights (by wearing bright coloured clothes), and persons should exercise more care when they are crossing the roads.

Approximately 2,500 students at Little Bay Primary and Infant School in Westmoreland and Old Harbour High School in St. Catherine are benefitting from the donation of two buses to the institutions.

The vehicles, which have bolstered the schools’ transportation arrangements, are already yielding positive outcomes, as student attendance at both schools has increased.

There has, additionally, been a decrease in the number of students at Little Bay Primary relying on ‘bike taxis’ to get to school.

The buses were provided by the Government of Japan at a cost of $11 million with grant funding support under the Japanese Grassroots Human Security Projects.

They will augment the Ministry of Education and Youth’s Rural Schools Transportation Programme.

The National Education Trust (NET), an agency of the Ministry, was pivotal in the process of acquiring the buses, which will also be utilised to transport youngsters for academic and extracurricular engagements.

Portfolio Minister, Hon. Fayval Williams, lauded the stakeholders collaborating on the engagement during a ceremony at the Ministry, on Tuesday (February 21), to formalise the arrangements.

She noted that students attending schools in rural communities often have to travel long distances, “without the requisite public transportation infrastructure to support them.”

Mrs. Williams said, consequent on this, “I am sure that the school community… also deeply appreciates this help.”

Japan’s newly appointed Ambassador to Jamaica, His Excellency Yasuhiro Atsumi, noted that Jamaica has benefitted from J$1.4 billion in programme support under the Grassroots Human Security Projects, since its launch in 1995.

“So once more, Japan is pleased to support educational programmes so that all students can fulfill their educational ambitions, lifelong learning skills and [have] opportunities equipped with strong support systems,” he said.

Meanwhile, several stakeholders welcomed the donations, among them, Custos Rotulorum for St. Catherine and Old Harbour High School Board Chair, Hon. Icylin Golding.

“We are excited for this gift of a bus. We pledge to [take] care… [of] this bus and use it to further education and enrich lives,” she said.

For his part, Little Bay Primary and Infant School Principal, Keron King, said the bus is a welcome addition to the institution.

“For the last four years, the most important goal that we had set was to get a school bus, [because] transportation is a major challenge for us. [So today] is one of the happiest days of my life,” he stated.

Approximately $159 million has been allocated to complete phase II of the Ministry of Education and Youth’s Education System Transformation Programme in the new fiscal year.

The sum is contained in the 2023/24 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives.

The programme will be implemented by the National Education Trust (NET) and funded by the Government of Jamaica.

The programme’s main objective is to advance the education sector’s modernisation and build on initiatives already executed.

These include improving the management of school plants, human and capital resources and student outcomes by 2025/26, and improving school efficiency and administration by establishing a management framework.

Other objectives are to increase student access to quality secondary-school places through the construction of six new Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) and one Visual and Performing Arts secondary-level institutions by 2028/29.

A study tour of Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) Academies in the United Kingdom by a delegation from the Ministry of Education and Youth and the National Education Trust (NET) was conducted recently.

The tour was done in partnership with the British Council as part of the Ministry’s efforts to establish Jamaica’s first STEAM Academy.

Executive Director of NET, Latoya Harris-Ghartey, told JIS News that the exercise provided useful insights into “their teaching and learning process to influence what we do here [in Jamaica]”.

She said already, legal consultants are engaged to help “frame out the operation of these schools,” and further details on the management and operation of the STEAM schools will be “fine-tuned in the upcoming fiscal year”.

“In terms of capacity-building, we actually have on the table, through our partnership with the British Council, a policy concept paper, and that is guiding our way forward and will act like a baseline to monitor, grow and shape the ecosystem for STEAM education in Jamaica,” Mrs. Harris-Ghartey explained.

She pointed out that the Jamaica Teaching Council (JTC) will also be working alongside the Ministry to assist with the training of teachers and capacity-building for STEAM training in the wider sector.

A US$1.5 million Early Childhood Development Centre for Innovation is slated for construction in St. James East Central this year.

This was announced by Tourism Minister and Member of Parliament, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, who said it is intended to break ground in March and complete the institution’s construction in time to be opened for the start of the 2023/24 academic year, in September.

He was speaking during a fundraising dinner to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the East Central St. James Education Fund, at the Half Moon Hotel Conference Centre in Montego Bay, on January 14.

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness and Minister of Education and Youth, Hon. Fayval Williams, headed the officials attending.

Mr. Bartlett said the innovation centre is expected to “change the concept of early-childhood education” in western Jamaica.

“We feel that something is missing in terms of our own programme, and we have to start at the right place, so we decided that we must make amends. That gave birth to the concept of the Early Childhood Development Centre for Innovation, which will cater to 100 children at a time on a revolving basis,” he informed.

Mr. Bartlett said the institution “will be a Climate Action School (CAS)”, through the Take Action Global (TAG) network, and also a designated Ministry of Education and Youth ‘Parent Place’.

He further indicated that the space will define early childhood regionally and internationally, with various teacher-support and exchange programmes, along with parent engagement and training, which will highlight the constituency as “the cutting-edge driver of early-childhood transformation”.

The Minister said the focus on early childhood comes on the heels of a programme that saw more than 10,000 primary, secondary and tertiary students benefiting from $60 million in scholarships over the years.

“This [early-childhood development centre] is the next step in building the human capital in the constituency. We have graduated doctors, lawyers, nurses, teachers, policemen and preachers.

“Currently, we have students in every high school in the county of Cornwall and other high schools outside of the county. We have students in every teachers’ college in Jamaica, in every university in Jamaica and in universities in the United States, in Canada and in China and Spain,” Mr. Bartlett added.

Against this background, the Minister said he was pleased with the positive impact that the scholarship fund has been having on the lives of students.

Mr. Bartlett added that “in all of this, we find that there are issues that have to do with staying with things that matter, and the way in which we seem to have taught our children to manage their lives and relationships”.

“This is a world where they have to learn how to deal with conflict resolution, with understanding differences, and how they treat with business and other relationships,” he said.

Prime Minister Holness, in commending Mr. Bartlett on his “commitment to education”, said he is very impressed with the initiative, while indicating that “I am very interested in the concept of an early-childhood centre becoming an innovation centre”.

“I want to see the curriculum and the pedagogy to be used in the centre and have already suggested to the Education and Youth Minister, [Hon.] Fayval Williams, [that] this is something she might want to take a special interest in, because it may not only be an education for the learners in terms of innovation, but it might very well be an innovation in teaching,” he added.

Minister Williams, in her remarks, said the innovation centre is aligned with the transformation of education now taking place in Jamaica “and the reimagining that we must do”.

The Education and Youth Ministry is placing focus on expanding the tertiary education sector with options for students to access financing.

Portfolio Minister, Hon. Fayval Williams, told JIS News that the objective is to ensure that a “higher percentage of our population is educated at higher levels”.

She said statistics indicate that enrolment of students in tertiary institutions remains low relative to those who graduate from secondary school.

“We know that the limiting factor is generally financing, so we have earnestly worked, all during last year, to look at a higher education policy and look at what kind of ideas we can come forward with on financing,” she said.

Minister Williams was speaking to JIS News after addressing an Interfaith Convocation Service at the University Chapel in St. Andrew on Sunday (December 8), to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the University of the West Indies (UWI).

Pro-Vice Chancellor and Principal of UWI, Mona, Professor Dale Webber said the university, across its five campuses, is working to introduce shorter course options that will cater to students who have to work while pursuing tertiary studies.

“You can also do a one-year diploma or certificate [and] we’re now getting into even shorter courses for three [or] six weeks. They (courses) are all going to be put together in a way where we can determine what we call ‘laddering’. So [a student will do] a bit now, go back to work, do another little bit, go back to work, and you can ladder into a programme,” he explained.

Professor Webber said that the 75th anniversary provides an opportunity to further grow the institution.

“We’re aligning our research with what society needs, and we are being more agile in making it possible, within a shorter time, to reach places that we’ve never gone before. We look forward to sharing with all of Jamaica, the Caribbean, and the world,” he said.

University Registrar and Chief Administrative Officer, Dr. Maurice Smith, informed that several activities are slated to take place in each region to celebrate the institution’s 75th anniversary.

“We have academic conferences, lectures, parties, galas, talent shows [and] we have features to celebrate those awesome members of staff, who have been working across universities,” he noted.

Persons can see a full list of activities to mark the anniversary milestone on the university’s website at http://www.mona.uwi.edu.