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The 4-H Movement is to benefit from the services of Peace Corps volunteers in many community projects islandwide. A new batch of these volunteers are to be accepted for service on (July 18), at the 4-H training centre in Rose Hall, St. Catherine. Executive Director of the Jamaica 4-H Clubs, Lenworth Fulton told JIS News that the Movement has had...

Plans are in high gear by the Education Transformation Team to implement the first phase of its modernisation mandate for the education sector this month. Executive Director of the Education Transformation Team, Dr. Frank Weeple, explained to JIS News that the first stage of the two and half year-long modernization process "will happen in a six-month inception stage and that...

This month, the Ministry of National Security will begin a strategic review of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF). The review, slated to come to an end in May 2008, forms part of a plan to improve the operations of the nation's police force. Speaking at a press conference today (July 17), to launch the review, Minister of National Security, Dr....

The coffee berry borer trap BROCAP, which was introduced to farmers in 2003, to assist with the management of the pest, has been doing very well according to Gusland McCook, Regional Advisory Officer for the Eastern Region of the Coffee Industry Board (CIB). In a JIS news interview today (July 17), Mr. McCook said "we have seen one year where...

Managing Director of the Micro Investment Development Agency (MIDA) Vivian Chin, has said that the agency will be seeking to access funding through the Petro Caribe agreement to increase lending to the micro business sector. He was addressing a special 15th anniversary function held recently at the Wexford Court Hotel in Montego Bay. While noting the recent capital injection of...

By November, the Government will pay over to schools the matching cost sharing fees for those children who are unable to pay the required fees for the upcoming school year. This was disclosed by the Minister of Information and Development, Donald Buchanan, at the weekly post Cabinet press briefing, held at Jamaica House on (July 16). "The government will front...

Cabinet has approved the award of a contract to Quality Plus Contracting Company Limited in the sum of $19,798,188 to provide skilled and unskilled labour for the provision of bunkering services. This was announced by the Minister of Information and Development, Donald Buchanan, at the weekly post Cabinet press briefing on (July 16) held at Jamaica House. The Minister informed...

Minister of Information and Development, Donald Buchanan has stated that the Government has no plans to privatize the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH). Mr. Buchanan who was responding to reports to the contrary in the media asserted that, "at no time did the Minister of Health (Horace Dalley) propose any divestment or privatisation of the KPH." "What the Minister said was...

The start of the new academic year should see early childhood practitioners working from a new curriculum in an effort to improve the quality of education in these institutions. The curriculum, which will be piloted by the Early Childhood Commission (ECC), is part of the new requirements of the Early Childhood Act and its Regulations, which will come into effect...

Twenty one dialysis machines are to arrive in the island soon, to boost health care delivery. The machines, valued at US$315,000, have been donated by the Division of Nephrology and the Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University of Nashville, Tennessee. Jamaica's Ambassador to the United States, Professor Gordon Shirley, accepted the gift on behalf of the government, at a ceremony on...

Ten government agencies will now be required to contribute to the HEART Trust/NTA, following the Senate's approval of the Human and Resource Training Act Order 2007 on Friday (July 13). The entities that have been added to the list of contributors are: Betting Gaming and Lotteries Commission, Development Bank of Jamaica Limited, Export Import Bank, Factories Corporation of Jamaica Limited,...

Minister of State for Education and Youth, Senator Noel Monteith, has raised concern about the provision in the Child Care and Protection Regulations for the withdrawal of recreational activities as a form of punishment for children in state care. "I have always taken objection to anybody using the subject area of physical education and sport as a means of punishment....