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Acting Chief Executive Officer of the National Education Trust (NET), Paul Matalon, says between 90 and 100 new schools are needed with at least 120,000 spaces, to alleviate the space deficit in the education system at the secondary level. At the primary level, there is a deficit of 68,100 spaces, with a requirement of 53 schools to meet the demand....

Minister of Labour and Social Security, Hon. Pearnel Charles, has expressed regret at the passing of former Director of Industrial Relations in the Ministry of Labour, Stephen Benjamin Carter. Mr. Carter, also known as S. Ben Carter, died on Monday, August 30, after a brief illness, at the age of 89. Mr. Carter who was born in Clarksonville, St. Ann,...

The Ministry of Education has earmarked some $37 million for the provision of furniture to schools during the new academic year. This was noted by Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Audrey Sewell, during a back-to-school press briefing, held at the Ministry in Kingston, last week. So far, some 200 schools have been placed on the priority list for school furniture....

Minister of Education, Hon. Andrew Holness, has implored all partners in the education sector to strive towards achieving excellence in the thinking, parenting, teaching and learning disciplines. He emphasised the importance of the value of education, and the necessity of making sacrifices to achieve it. The Minister was speaking at the official launch of the 2010/2011 school year, at the...

At the beginning of the 2010/11 academic year, the Students' Loan Bureau (SLB) has processed some 10,000 loan applications for tertiary level students, of which only six are yet to be approved. This conforms to the approval rate of up to 98 per cent in the recent past. This update was provided to JIS News by the SLB, at the...

The Ministry of Education says it will be providing more than 3,000 new spaces at the secondary, primary and infant school levels for the upcoming academic year. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Audrey Sewell also informed that for the 2010/2011 academic year, Steer Town High School will be opened as a Centre of Excellence on the campus of the newly...

The island welcomed approximately 1.3 million visitors between January and August this year. Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, announced the figure on August 28, when he welcomed the one millionth visitor to the Sangster International Airport, in Montego Bay, St. James. Mr. Bartlett told JIS News that he was "cautiously optimistic" that the Fall tourist season would be "reasonable,"...

The Ministry of Transport and Works, through the Road Maintenance Fund, is replacing all incandescent traffic signals across the island with Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamps. Minister of Transport and Works, Hon. Michael Henry (left), in discussion with Operations Manager of the Traffic Management Unit, National Works Agency, Michael Saunderson regarding Light Emitting Diode (LED) traffic signal lamps, which are...

Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, Hon. Olivia "Babsy" Grange, has expressed shock and sorrow at the sudden passing of Jamaica's leading junior female golfer, Isabelle Marley. Marley, arguably the best young female golfer in the Caribbean, died Friday September 3 in the Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay, after she was found injured at the Cinnamon Hill Golf Course,...

The Ministry of Justice, through its Restorative and Community Justice (RCJ) Unit, has trained 98 additional persons as Restorative and Community Justice Facilitators, as part of the initiative to improve the justice system. The training workshop was held from August 23 to 26, at the Shaw Park Beach Hotel and Spa in Ocho Rios, St. Ann. Justice Reform Co-ordinator, Beverly...

Education Minister, Hon. Andrew Holness, has said that the Ministry will be implementing its new National Student Registration Programme during the upcoming academic year. The new system will seek to capture information on all students in the school system and placed on a single national database. "Technology is such that we now have the capacity to capture, manage, analyse and...

Chief Education Officer in the Ministry of Education, Grace McLean, is reporting that the 2010-2011 academic year got underway with few hitches, with at least 98 per cent of schools fully re-opened. "The reports have been coming in from the Regions and so far we have had a very smooth start. There are very few incidents that have been reported...