Gov’t Committed To Levelling Playing Field For Secondary Education

Minister with responsibility for Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Karl Samuda, says the Government is committed to creating a level playing field at the secondary level in order to ensure that students, at both traditional and non-traditional institutions, have equal opportunities to excel.

“We’re going to give every child an opportunity to be as equal as the one who’s coming from the traditional high school. That is our commitment, because without that commitment and without that determination, we are not going to be able to build the Jamaica that we love to talk about and that we love to boast about,” he said.

Minister Samuda was delivering the keynote address at the launch of the Edward Seaga Scholarship Awards at the Spanish Court Hotel in New Kingston on Wednesday (September 25).

Meanwhile, he said that focus will be placed on nurturing students at the pre-primary and primary levels in order to ensure that they are adequately prepared for high school.

“You cannot expect to have students ill-prepared, not being given the level of attention, the tutoring, the nutrition, the family life, the security of housing, all that goes with developing the young mind.

“We cannot expose those children to that and expect to produce, at the end of it all, a student that can cope with those who enjoy those facilities,” Minister Samuda said.

“So we will have to prepare the students in every sense of the world in human development; prepare the whole child,” he added.

Meanwhile the scholarship awards saw the presentation of seven scholarships to four university and three high-school students. A number of grants were also awarded to other students.