Education System Must Meet Needs Of Labour Market – Rev. Thwaites

Education Minister, the Hon. Rev. Ronald Thwaites, says that the education system must produce graduates, who can meet the requirements of the labour market.

“We have to look at the marketplace, the society, to ask questions about what is needed from the system; what skills are required, what competencies are required, what attitudes and values are required, and … and compose our schools, our teaching, and our curriculum to meet those,” he argued.

He was addressing an audience gathered for the Merl Grove High School’s 90th Anniversary Karram-Speid Lecture on Tuesday (November 18), on the school grounds in St. Andrew.

The Minister told the students present that attaining a sound education is not only about passing several Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) subjects.

“Those are good things…but, we are talking about your character, and your spiritual depth. Those things combined are what make the educated person the fulfilled human being,” he noted.

Jamaica’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK), Her Excellency Aloun Ndombet Assamba, who delivered the lecture, noted that Jamaica has made significant strides in education.

She noted that despite the challenges, many Jamaican students are excelling at home and across the globe.

“We have strived to the point that the country is now on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of 100 per cent literacy at the primary level in 2015,” she said.

The High Commissioner noted that girls have been leading the way towards attaining the goal of universal literacy at the primary level, “so we will need to ensure that our boys also advance.”

She urged students of Merl Grove “to be proud of our school and the opportunities that you have been afforded to enter these hallowed walls.”