Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, has informed that financing is being put in place to construct six science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) schools across the country.

He made the disclosure during the annual Primary Exit Profile (PEP) awards function, held at Banquet Hall, Jamaica House, on Thursday (August 29).

“These schools will not be run under the current education system in terms of the Education Act. We will develop a new scheme of managing those schools because, for us, it is a strategically important programme. We need to create very quickly, very rapidly with guarantees, a generation of Jamaicans who are highly trained in STEM. This is a national priority,” Mr. Holness said.

“We have identified the lands…; we are now going through what is called the investment assessment process. Once that is finished, we will start with building one school and then we’ll fund until we have all six built,” he added.

The Prime Minister said he had the opportunity to view the results of the May/June 2024 sitting of the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examination, including mathematics, which had a pass rate of 39 per cent.

Mr. Holness noted that the level of passes in mathematics was of “great concern to me,” as it is not just a social problem, as it is imperative for the country’s economic development.

“The country cannot develop without us doing better at mathematics. The jobs that are paying better and the jobs that we need to attract to Jamaica, which pay better, involve science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” he said.

He noted that wages are tied to what is produced, “and if we’re going to be bringing in new jobs that are going to be paying higher wages…, if we are going to break from the traditional industries, BPOs and hotels, [we need] to start to think about attracting software development and artificial intelligence”.

“Let’s think about industries in medical technology. These are industries that require this very high level of training, and that is where we will need to be focused. So, when we, a few years ago, decided that we have to transform the education system, it is because we understand how to transform not just education but to transform the economy,” Mr. Holness said.

“Yes, the complaint is that Jamaica has been described as low growth and low wage. But to move from low growth and low wage, we need to move to high skill and high productivity. And where does it start? It starts with the PEP generation that is here. We need to guarantee that 20 to 30 per cent of our students will go into [STEM] and we will be able to produce the engineers that we need,” he added.

The Prime Minister noted that there are not enough engineers, data analysts and data scientists.

“The focus, therefore, has to be on how we very rapidly ensure that the smaller number of students that are going into the education system each year, that we have an increasing number of them that are in an almost protected environment where they can be channelled, supported and protected into developing the STEM skills that are necessary,” Mr. Holness said.

He reiterated that the STEM schools cannot be run under the regular ambit of the education system and have to be run under a different scheme of management that makes the child the priority, and the outcome of producing highly trained, technically oriented persons.

“The reality is we can’t continue to do psychology and social work… . We need more people in science. We need more people in mathematics and it’s not just for me to come and talk and preach but to actually put the things in motion for it to be done,” the Prime Minister said.