JIS: Parents are being urged to support children who want to pursue careers in the creative industries.

 

Dean of the School of Visual Arts at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, Miriam Hinds-Smith, said it is important for parents to encourage children to develop their artistic talents.

 

She noted that there are a range of careers available to persons who pursue professional studies in the field.

 

“Parents, I appeal to you, trust the decisions of your child. Support them. Not just financially, but have those conversations that explore what it is they are interested in,” she said.

 

Mrs. Hinds-Smith was addressing a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) Think Tank at the JIS head office today (June 20), to raise awareness about the importance of the creative industries to national development.

 

Dean of the School of Dance, Kerry-Ann Henry, who also addressed the Think Tank, said the Edna Manley College is undertaking various strategies, in an effort to ensure greater accessibility and flexibility in course offerings.

 

She is encouraging parents to visit the college for information about its various programmes.

 

“We are looking at different ways of offering our programmes and how persons can access them. We are also (going into high schools) for recruitment sessions, and to get students to be thinking a lot earlier about whether the arts is a good area for a career,” she informed.

 

Ms. Henry said the college wants to raise awareness about the viability of careers in the arts, which will enable graduates to be productive citizens while pursuing their passion.

 

She pointed to the need for increased support for studies in the creative field, through scholarships and grants.

 

“At Edna, you can define all the things that you want to become. You will define that experience… and that is why you should come to the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, so you can create your own pathway, to reimagine, reinvent, rediscover and to paint a path through the world that you will leave a legacy on,” she said.

 

Mrs. Hinds-Smith, in the meanwhile, said the college is committed to maintaining integrity in its programme offerings, through constant assessment and monitoring of courses, feedback from clients and adhering to global and regional standards.

 

“We are constantly in a space where we assess and develop and rethink to respond to our clients. What we provide at the college is a service, and for us to be meaningful, our service has to be relevant,” she said. 

 

CAPTION: Dean, School of Dance, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, Kerry-Ann Henry, addresses a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) Think Tank at the agency’s Head Office in Kingston on Tuesday, June 20 

 

JIS: The Ministry of Education, Youth and Information is reminding secondary-school principals to adhere to the school support contribution policy in the 2017/18 academic year.

Under the policy, implemented in 2016, the Government abolished the payment of auxiliary fees, and increased the funding to the high schools from $2.6 billion to $5.3 billion.

For the upcoming academic year, the allocation will be further increased to $7.2 billion.

The policy stipulates that contribution from parents cannot be made mandatory and must not be a requirement for registration, school access, graduation, examination slips, application to sixth form or access to any public service at a public education institution.

In addition, no more than $5,000 is allowed to be charged for registration packages for new students.

Schools must ensure that discussions are held with parent-teacher associations as it relates to the contribution amount being requested from parents.

This amount must be approved by the Ministry, and parents must not be forced to pay any contribution.

Meanwhile, the Ministry will begin disbursement of funds for 2017/2018 starting June, in order to ensure that institutions can make adequate preparations for the opening of school.

The second disbursement will be made in September, the third in December, and the final payout in April 2018.

 

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

JIS: The creative industry is being touted as a critical and viable sector for the promotion of economic growth and development, through entrepreneurship.

Lecturer in the School of Drama at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, Marvin George, who is also an experienced Caribbean playwright, actor and director, said entrepreneurship is a significant aspect of how professional artists operate in the field.

“Of all the disciplines to which we introduce our children, the one discipline that is surely entrepreneurial is working in the creative arts,” he said.

Mr. George, addressing a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) ‘Think Tank’, on June 20, said it is, therefore, important that artists pursue training to develop adequate entrepreneurial skills to achieve success.

He said art management programmes and other courses geared at promoting effective business skills are included in all faculties at the college – School of Drama, School of Dance, School of Visual Arts and the School of Music.

“This means that every single person that we send out into the world has to learn, first and foremost, how to be entrepreneurial. Every single School is asking the artist what he would like to do, how it fits into the context in which he is operating, and by doing what his passion demands, how will that feed him for the rest of his life,” Mr. George said.

“In discussions on development, we talk about entrepreneurship as a critical driver. This means that we have to… work in a way that entrepreneurship becomes part and parcel of what we do,” he added.

Director of Studies at the School of Arts Management and Humanities, Dr. Anthea Octave, said this department aims specifically to develop entrepreneurial skills, and teach students how to manage their own artistic careers and that of others.

“Through the various courses, the idea is to begin to think about what your skill sets are and what are the needs of your community, or region, that those skill sets could meet. (You need to figure out) what are the gaps that exist that might help you to form a career,” she said.

Dr. Octave further noted that students are also engaged in practical ways in the course offerings, specifically through a student-run company at the institution, One Creative Yaad – that gives persons the opportunity to apply theoretical concepts to actual projects.

The courses, she said, help students to start forging careers, with some becoming agents and managers, and others gaining employment as production managers, or in public relations and branding, while still enrolled at the Edna Manley College.

Meanwhile, College Orator, Dr. Amina Blackwood-Meeks, is urging the Jamaican society to engage in a conversation that seeks to promote the cultural and creative industries as a viable career and entrepreneurial option.

She noted that investment in the sector is critical to reaping the benefits from the abundance of cultural and creative assets available in the country and region.

 

“It’s a conversation, really, about emancipating yourself from mental slavery. Society needs to be involved in this conversation about using the arts to dismantle colonialism,” she said.

 

CAPTION: Lecturer in the School of Drama, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, Marvin George, addresses Jamaica Information Service (JIS) ‘Think Tank’ on Tuesday, June 20. 

 

GLEANER:The Ministry of Education is reporting that regardless of qualification, students leaving the secondary school system will be able to enroll in a programme that will enable them to improve their prospects for employment or further studies. Such programmes are tailored for those students who did not matriculate to sixth form or who chose not to attend sixth form.

 

Chief Education Officer at the Ministry of Education Dr Grace McLean says placement is possible through the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment Programme (HOPE) and Learn, Earn, Give back through service and Save programme (LEGS), among others.

 

The HEART Trust/NTA is taking a lead role in the implementation of the various programmes, alongside such agencies as the National Youth Service (NYS) and the Career Advancement Programme (CAP). The available programmes include the HOPE Youth Summer Programme, the National Service Corps Programme, the School Leavers Training Opportunities Programme, also called SL-TOP, and the CAP for grades 12 and 13 students.

 

The recently introduced government initiative, HOPE, seeks to introduce a range of social-intervention programmes affecting the local community and the most vulnerable groups in the society, inclusive of the youth population. Both the HEART Trust/NTA and the NYS are taking lead roles in the implementation of the employment component of HOPE. To this end, HEART Trust says it’s aiming to add value while empowering the youth by enhancing their prospects for job placement through employable and technical skills acquisition. Participants are, in large part, impacted through a strategy under HOPE which addresses their productive engagement to LEGS.

 

… The HOPE Youth Summer Work Programme

The HEART Trust says some dimensions of the LEGS strategy are already being implemented to increase the percentage of the individuals trained, certified and placed in jobs or entrepreneurial activities.

 

These include the NYS-led HOPE Youth Summer Work Programme, which runs from June to August.

 

– The HOPE Youth Summer Programme runs for three months.

 

– It targets just over 25,000 young people, inclusive of those leaving school.

 

– Participants are being provided with an opportunity to gain three weeks of work experience while earning a stipend.

 

– Stipend can be used, among other things, to contribute to future educational pursuits.

 

– Participants are exposed to key employable skills, such as rÈsumÈ preparation and interviewing techniques.

 

– Based on assessment, following orientation, selected participants will be further engaged in a two-week job-readiness training programme as part of preparation to access jobs in the business process outsourcing sector.

 

… HEART-Trust/NTA

For the thousands of unattached teenagers graduating from the formal education system this summer, and who may be short on qualification, the HEART Trust/NTA may be your best option.

 

According to the HEART Trust, its approach is to assess each individual and determine which programme they are best suited to participate in. It says everyone will be aligned to an appropriate programme.

 

Those without CXCs must do the following:

 

– Sit the HEART diagnostic assessment.

 

– Academic strengthening intervention is provided for those who need basic numeracy and literacy-skills enhancement.

 

– Following assessment, selectees could be placed in the National Service Corps Programme.

 

– Participants with a single CSEC subject or who demonstrate mastery in the HEART diagnostic assessment can matriculate to National Vocational Qualification of Jamaica (NVQJ) programmes at HEART institutions or enroll in the National Apprenticeship Programme.

 

– Participants with two or more CXC passes can matriculate straight into the SL-TOP or NVQJ programmes offered at HEART institutions.

 

– Participants with five or more CSEC subjects can matriculate to the Vocational Training Development Institute.

 

… The School Leavers Training Opportunities Programme

A variant of the apprenticeship programme, the School Leavers Training Opportunities Programme (SL-TOP) is aimed at training school leavers between the ages of 17 and 23.

 

– SL-TOP uses on-the-job modality in specific disciplines.

 

– Programme duration is one to two years for persons with two or more CSEC subjects or equivalent qualifications.

 

– SL-TOP offers a high rate of job placement as many of the trainees are offered employment in the firm where they received training.

 

… National Service Corps Programme

School leavers can also tap into the National Service Corps Programme, which targets young people 18 to 24-years-old. THE NYS is the main implementing agency. The programme offers the following:

 

– Apprentices are exposed to both core and technical skills.

 

– Core skills include self-development, conflict management, family life management, civics, social etiquette, etc.

 

– Technical skills include document management and digitisation, environmental management, geographic information system, infrastructure and construction and hospitality.

 

… Access to Higher Education Partnership Programme

The NYS also assists school leavers through its Access to Higher Education Partnership Programme. This is a scholarship provided for youth who have matriculated to a tertiary educational institution to pursue study in areas of national importance.

 

– Scholarship recipients receive $100,000 per annum towards their tuition.

 

– Partnering institutions pay a percentage of the tuition fee for the beneficiary.

 

– The NYS currently partners with the College of Agriculture, Science and Education; the Caribbean Maritime Institute; Brown’s Town Community College; Montego Bay Community College, and the Northern Caribbean University.

 

– Tuition assistance is provided to scholars who are studying in national priority areas of agriculture, logistics, engineering, tourism, information and communication technology.

 

– Scholars are required to maintain a GPA of 3.0 and are engaged in empowerment sessions and volunteer service.

 

…Volunteerism

Another option for school leavers this summer is volunteerism. Those thinking about volunteering should contact the National Youth Service (NYS).

 

– The NYS offers a structured volunteer experience.

 

– The programme is designed to increase youth participation in national and community initiatives.

 

– Programme aim is to foster civic responsibility and strengthen communities.

 

– Youth can be facilitated within an organisational setting, in community-based projects, special days or activities on a continuous basis.

 

CAPTION: Hundreds of graduates listen attentively at a HEART Trust/NTA Annual Regional Certification Ceremony at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston. 

GLEANER:  Minister of Education Ruel Reid said the Government is prepared to take disruptive students from the regular school system and place them in what he is proposing as ‘Time Out’ facilities.

 

Speaking to journalists during a Gleaner Editors’ Forum held at the newspaper’s offices in central Kingston, the education minister said that starting with Kingston and St Andrew, serious consideration is being given to establish special facilities to treat children who display deviant behaviour.

 

He indicated that the moral decay that continues to plague the society has resulted in a breakdown in family structures, which then produces children with severe behavioural challenges.

 

“We are a bold administration and it was something I had to do at JC (Jamaica College). There have been students who required deliberate and specialised treatment, where they do a whole cycle on social analysis to drill down to some of the issues. Meaning, therefore, that some of them can’t remain in the regular classroom for awhile,” the minister said.

 

 

 

MOVING AHEAD

 

 

“We can dance around it as much as we would like but we are now going to be moving ahead to see how we can establish in each region, in the first instance, Kingston and St Andrew, to establish time-out facilities so that those students with serious challenges would have to be taken out temporarily, treat them and bring them back,” he continued.

 

Reid said the ministry will be strident in ensuring that discipline and holistic development become the pillars that guide all educational institutions.

 

“It doesn’t mean that they are necessarily not going to have educational opportunities while they are out, but I don’t like the notion of having children in a regular school that you can’t control,” he said.

 

CAPTION: A policeman from the bicycle patrol team searches a group of schoolboys who were seen loitering in the St William Grant Park in downtown Kingston

GLEANER: With only a year left before the Ministry of Education replaces the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) with the much-anticipated Primary Exit Profile (PEP), the preparation for transition is on in earnest, and further details have emerged on how students will be tested, graded and subsequently placed in high schools.

 

Education Minister Senator Ruel Reid, speaking at a Gleaner Editors’ Forum at the newspaper’s North Street offices in central Kingston last week, said he has interrogated the system and is so far pleased with the progress the ministry has made in preparation for PEP.

 

He said further training of teachers and school administrators would get under way soon to prepare them for the new dispensation of the Primary School Exit examination, which commences in 2019.

 

It means that current grade four students will be the first cohort to sit PEP.

 

 

 

SWEEPING CHANGES

 

 

Part of the sweeping changes the ministry has disclosed is a shift in the examination period from March to May, and there will be an introduction of short-answer questions to complement multiple-choice questions which are now solely presented to students.

 

Reid declared: “The change is not just going to be a name … .

 

“It is intended for it to be a better preparatory mechanism for students moving into the secondary system to make sure we have better outcomes,” Reid said, adding that the PEP will shift the status quo of students regurgitating to developing critical and creative thinking skills.

 

The Primary Exit Profile (PEP) exam slated to begin in 2019 will have three distinct components which are the high order test, the performance task, and an ability test.

 

“The high order test will be the test that they will perform at the end of their time in grade six, and it will be a combination of multiple-choice and short-answer essay-type questions,” Education Minister Ruel Reid disclosed on Friday at a Gleaner Editors’ Forum at the company’s North Street offices in central Kingston.

 

The performance task, the minister disclosed, will be comparable to the current school-based assessment done by students preparing to sit the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) exams and will span grades four and five.

 

Reid addressing the issue of quality control of the assessment said, like at CXC, teachers will assess the students at the school, but there will, however, be moderation by way of a sampling mechanism.

 

The minister said the ability test would not be curriculum-based and will be presented to students in the form of multiple-choice questions.

 

As for high-school placement, the education minister said there would be no changes in that respect.

 

 

 

SMOOTH TRANSITION

 

 

Adamant that there must be a smooth transition into PEP, Reid disclosed that beginning September of this year, a change-management and communication team will be responsible for preparing primary-school teachers and administrators for PEP, while keeping the public informed on related matters.

 

The introduction of PEP coincides with the ending of the implementation of the national standards curriculum.

 

This financial year, the ministry has allocated $389 million for preparatory work and further training of teachers for PEP.

 

[email protected]

 

CAPTION: Central Branch All-Age School Students.

JIS: Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, is challenging researchers at the Northern Caribbean University (NCU) to undertake more agricultural based studies and innovations which would redound to the benefit of the country.

 

“If we manage to infuse technology and good management into our agricultural practises, we could increase our agricultural output tenfold and where you are in the centre of the island, I think you are well placed to lead that initiative,” he said.

 

The Prime Minister was speaking at the Northern Caribbean University’s (NCU) fundraising banquet held on Thursday (June 15) at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston.

 

The banquet was to commemorate the inauguration of the NCU’s 24th President, Dr. Lincoln P. Edwards.

 

Mr. Holness encouraged the institution to develop and expand their research training capacities.

 

He further urged the school to train more students who will be ready for the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector at all levels, particularly in accounting, and software development.

 

“You have students who could easily transition into a work study programme in partnership with people who have business process outsourcing opportunities to do in Jamaica,” he said.

 

He noted that while more than 1000 persons have been employed in the sector in Mandeville, discussions with directors in the area have revealed that there is a need for more trained individuals and infrastructure.

 

Meanwhile, Mr. Holness said the institution is integral to the development of Mandeville through student housing and all the allied services that are provided to the university.

 

He further lauded the students for the numerous awards they have received both locally and internationally and encouraged them to continue being trailblazers in their respective fields.

 

In his remarks, President, NCU, Dr. Lincoln Edwards said the university aims to raise in excess of US$10 million over the next three years.

 

The initiative dubbed the NCU Restoring Every Student Confidence Using Education (RESCUE) 2020, will provide scholarships to needy students who are in at-risk communities in the island.

 

“We would also like to equip and build a dental hygiene and community outreach centre-a multipurpose building…and medical clinic to deliver dental and medical services to underserved populations, particularly in rural communities,” he said.

 

CAPTION: Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness (left) listens to a point being made by President, Northern Caribbean University (NCU), Dr. Lincoln Edwards, during the institution’s fundraising banquet, in commemoration of the inauguration of the new president, at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on June 15 .

JIS: The diaspora has contributed US$186,000 to the education sector for the period April 2016 to March 2017.

 

This was reported by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith, while speaking at a Jamaica Diaspora Day Breakfast event held on Friday (June 16) at the Jamaica National Financial Centre on Belmont Road, Kingston.

 

The event was held to commission a study on the economic value of the diaspora being undertaken by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI) and the Jamaica Diaspora Institute (JDI).

 

It was also part of activities to observe Diaspora Day celebrated locally and abroad on June 16.

 

Minister Johnson Smith said the money came from in-kind donations in the form of educational materials, inclusive of books and computers.

 

“We truly value the sacrifices that many of them make to their families and communities evidenced by their generous gifts, whether through philanthropic donations or sharing of their time, skills and expertise,” she said.

 

The Minister said that Jamaican nationals overseas have also provided an important niche market for non-traditional products.

 

She said that products, such as yams, sweet potatoes, papaya, dasheen, pumpkin, mangoes, breadfruit, callaloo and ackee are now top agricultural exports to the United Kingdom, United States of America (USA) and Canada.

 

“During the period 2005 to 2015, the USA represented the major market for agricultural exports,” she added.

 

The Foreign Affairs Minister said that the Government is committed to removing the bureaucratic hurdles that hinder investments.

 

She cited the Economic Growth Council, which she said was created “to remove the bureaucratic barriers that exists and encourage innovation and a level of pragmatism in our government processes.”

 

Turning to the study which will highlight the true value of the Diaspora, Minister Johnson Smith said it will enable the government and the private sector to design innovative strategies that are relevant to the Diaspora, taking into account their unique needs and preferences in their respective locations.

 

“It is imperative that we secure empirical data of the current and potential value of the partnership between Jamaica and its Diaspora,” she stated.

 

CAPTION: Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith speaking at a Jamaica Diaspora Day Breakfast event held on Friday (June 16) at the Jamaica National Financial Centre on Belmont Road, Kingston. The occasion was the launch of a study on the economic value of the Jamaican diaspora, to be undertaken by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI) and the Jamaica Diaspora Institute.