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Minister of Education, Andrew Holness, has said that the Ministry will be designing "male specific" programmes as a means of addressing the gender imbalance in educational achievement. The Minister was speaking at the official launch of the new school year at the Decarteret College in Mandeville last week. Pointing to the dismal performance of male students in the recent Caribbean...

Work was carried out in several communities in Portland on the week-end, in response to Prime Minister Bruce Golding's call for a national clean-up of post- Hurricane Dean debris, on September 29 and 30. Most of the work was done in the area between Long Bay and Manchioneal, where most of the hurricane devastation occurred on August 19. Among the...

The post-Hurricane Dean clean-up campaign, which took place on September 29 and 30, is being hailed a success by organizers in western Jamaica. Truckloads of debris were removed from several communities in the parishes of Trelawny, St. James, Westmoreland and Hanover over the two days, leaving those areas in a more healthy and attractive condition. The clean-up exercise, which was...

Gaming is big business the world over and Jamaica is no exception. As the industry grew here, thegovernment recognized a need for regulation, and so in 1975, it created the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Commission. In an interview with JIS News, Executive Director of the Commission, Derek Peart explains that the purpose of the Commission is to regulate the gaming...

Permanent Secretary of the former Ministry of Local Government, Devon Rowe, has urged revenue agents working under the mandate of the Property Tax Special Project, to boost collection of property taxes, which up to March 2006 had total arrears of $6 billion. At a Project meeting to review their first year's performance, and discuss strategies to maximize collections and improve...

Minister of Education, Andrew Holness has emphasised that he fully supports the view that the use of cellular phones in classrooms should be banned. Speaking at the official launch of the new school year at Decarteret College in Mandeville, Manchester, on September 28, the Minister said the Ministry of Education had started discussions with stakeholders on how to regulate the...

Prime Minister Bruce Golding indicated yesterday (Sept. 28), that there were plans to construct a new Parliament building, which would be done over the next five years. Mr. Golding informed that the Government would acquire parcels of land in close proximity to Gordon House, to construct the new building. "This one is 48 years old. Its inadequacies are unanimously acknowledged....

Minister of Education, Andrew Holness, has said that the objective of the government's free tuition initiative is to ensure that all Jamaicans have access to education. Mr. Holness, who was addressing a Think Tank held yesterday (Sept. 27) at the JIS Half-Way-Tree Road headquarters, said that with the initiative, there is no excuse for parents not to send their children...

A National Education Trust is to be established to fund the construction and maintenance of the country's education infrastructure. Addressing yesterday's (September 27) JIS 'Think Tank' at 58A Half- Way-Tree Road, Minister of Education, Andrew Holness explained that the Trust would be incorporated in the current education transformation system that exists. "We have to get the Trust worked into the...

Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, yesterday (Sept. 27) invited the Opposition to name members to chair select committees of Parliament, as part of a move to strengthen the effectiveness of the Opposition in the House. The committees include public administration and appropriations, public accounts, internal and external affairs, economy and production, human resources and social development, and infrastructure and physical development....

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Carol Palmer, said that the National Task Force Against Trafficking of Persons (NTFATIP) will be focusing on effective investigation and prosecution as the country aims for Tier 1 ranking in its efforts to combat human trafficking. "Essentially now, as we work toward Tier one, the focus is on effective investigation and prosecution. There...

Some 650 volunteers in Kingston and St. Andrew are expected to participate in the National Hurricane Clean-Up Project, scheduled for September 29 and 30. They will concentrate on the removal of hurricane debris, such as trees, tree limbs and branches, zinc, shrubbery and piles of dried leaves. This follows a rapid needs assessment conducted in communities by the Social Development...