Students Loan Bureau to get financial boost

The government is also contemplating waiving some of the repayment, if students pursue studies in areas where the skills level in Jamaica is low and who give back to the country by working in those areas.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding made the disclosure on Thursday, August 21, during a meeting with Minister of Education, Andrew Holness, to get an update on the progress of the Education Transformation programme. Mr. Golding reiterated his call for a study of the real market cost of educating children at all levels in Jamaica, in order to properly determine the extent of government’s contribution.

Minister Holness reported that the education transformation programme is progressing and that plans are far advanced for the setting up of the Jamaica Teaching Council and the National Inspectorate. Both will serve as standards and regulating agencies in the education system. He said the Education Ministry will be pilot testing a new operational structure in specific regions, as it prepares to transform its regional offices.

In the meantime, Minister Holness said the government will have to build 112 new schools in order to increase the available school spaces, reduce class size and remove the shift system entirely from the education sector. Forty-five of these schools are required in secondary education. He said the Ministry would be setting up a National Education Trust Fund to assist with the construction of the new schools.

Turning to early childhood education, Minister Holness told the meeting that despite the challenges, this is one area in which the Ministry was achieving tremendous success and that the Jamaican model of early childhood education is one that has received high levels of commendation from the World Bank. He said the Early Childhood Commission had established standards for the operation of early childhood institutions and that inspection of these institutions were being carried out by officers from the Commission.

The meeting also addressed the need for intervention at the level of the teacher training colleges, to adequately prepare teachers for the changes occurring in education.