JIS: Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, met with leaders in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information and its agencies today (March 27) and reassured them of his commitment to support them with their various mandates.

 

At the meeting, which was held at the Heroes Circle offices of the Ministry, Mr. Holness reiterated that Minister Karl Samuda would provide oversight of the Ministry, in light of the recent resignation of former Minister, Ruel Reid.

 

“For the next few months, I will be spending some time with you, meeting with you one-on-one, meeting with the various agencies, just to ensure that the Ministry is functioning and properly mandated and missioned,” the Prime Minister said.

 

He reminded the leaders that the national policies put in place at the Ministry have to be focused on, and can only remain successful if the human resource elements associated with the Ministry are effective.

 

“A crucial element in the growth equation is the human resource element. There are some other elements that we have to pay attention to, and that includes violence. Education is strongly linked to behavior, and we’re seeing that violent behaviour in our society is at epidemic proportions,” Mr. Holness said.

 

The Prime Minister said as it relates to the socioemotional component of human development in Jamaica, which the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information is often responsible for, quite a bit needs to be done on the socio-emotional element side of our education system.

 

“We need to be producing persons who have a higher level of reasoning, analytic ability and emotional sensitivity, so a part of my interest is to try and turn the ship of the Ministry into that direction, to spend a little more time on the socio-emotional development of our population,” he added.

 

CAPTION: Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness (centre), speaks to leaders in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information and its agencies, at the Ministry, on Wednesday (March 27). To the Prime Minister’s left is Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Dr. Grace McLean.