$81.4 Million set Aside for Project to Reform Primary Education

The activities of the Education Sector Reform project have been bolstered with an allotment of $81.4 million in the 2013/14 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives.

The project aims to support the implementation of the Education System Transformation Programme (ESTP) by operationalising the new agencies that are key to improving the capacity to deliver high quality education; and establishing mechanisms to mobilise additional resources for the education sector.

Up to February, 2013 under the project, a curriculum framework has been drafted, so too teachers’ guides for grades four to six, while teachers’ guides for grades one to three are being developed. In addition, the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) has been drafted and the schools to be extended have been identified.

Further, under the project administration component, for the period, an operations manual has been prepared and an auditor identified.

For this fiscal year, it is anticipated that the project will see the implementation of the pilot ofthe grades one to nine curricula; the grades two and nine diagnostic; and the PEP.

In addition, furniture is to be purchased for 14 modular classrooms for the Cedar Grove High School in St. Thomas.

The project is being implemented by Ministry of Education through funding from the Inter-American Development Bank. It began in July 2012, and is scheduled to end in June, 2015.

By Alecia Smith-Edwards , JIS Reporter