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Literacy enables persons to become agents of change, Dean of Education at Howard University, Dr. Leslie Fenwick recently told a literacy conference, at the Northern Caribbean University (NCU) in Mandeville. "A literate individual possesses communicative competence, he or she is able to use knowledge for persuasive purposes with a deliberate desire to change thinking, attitudes and behaviour," Dr. Fenwick said....

The Government has allocated $2.6 billion for the Education Transformation project in the 2009/10 Estimates of Expenditure. The funds will finance the continuation of reform activities undertaken by the Education Transformation project. A little more than $449.6 million will go towards curriculum, teaching and learning support. This component focusses on literacy and numeracy remediation strategies as well as curriculum development....

Government's support for Special Education has been boosted with the provision of over $800 million in the 2009/2010 Estimates of Expenditure. The total figure of $846.6 million will be apportioned as follows: schools for the mentally challenged, $405 million; institutions for the hearing impaired, $159 million; and schools for the visually impaired, $60 million. The funds will be used to...

The World Bank will be pouring $120 million into Phase Two of the Reform of Secondary Education (ROSE) Project in the 2009/2010 fiscal year. The funds will be used to continue improvements to the quality and equity of secondary education, through school-based initiatives and reform support. The project is also aimed at expanding access to secondary education, and strengthening the...

The Ministry of Education will be investing $5 million this fiscal year, in improving literacy and numeracy in targeted schools. Under its Expanding Education Horizons Project, the Ministry will also seek to enhance the quality of interventions for out-of-school youth and increase stakeholder support. The project will receive budgetary support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Gains...

The University of the West Indies (UWI) has committed to what it has dubbed, a 'Greeninitiative', as part of its efforts to promote environmentally sound practices. The pact provides the UWI with a unique opportunity, as a regional university, and the Mona campus, as a national leader in teaching and research, to declare its commitment to protecting and improving its...

A project aimed at enabling young children to learn and develop optimally, will receive $228.5 million in the 2009/10 Budget. According to the Estimates of Expenditure for the new fiscal year, the Enhancement of Basic Schools project, supported by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), was initially slated to run from 2002 to 2006, but that deadline has been revised twice,...

The Government has earmarked $31.9 million for students' nutrition, in the 2009/10 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives. The money will go towards grants to Nutrition Products Limited. Most of the $31.9 million will be used to repair and lease filling machines, which are necessary for the company's operations. A sum of $6.1 million has been provided...

The Ministry of Education has been allocated $2.6 million, to carry out repairs and maintenance to several special education institutions. The project is outlined in the 2009/10 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives. This fiscal year, $1.4 million will go towards repairing and maintaining schools for the mentally challenged and $400,000 towards schools for the hearing impaired....

The Ministry of Education is spending nearly $8 million this fiscal year to address absenteeism in the island's primary schools. According to the Estimates of Expenditure tabled on April 7 in Parliament, the objectives of the project are to raise attendance levels at 100 primary schools, and evaluate the National School Lunch Programme, in order to determine its contribution to...

The Government has allocated $211.6 million to repair and rehabilitate educational infrastructure damaged by Tropical Storm Gustav, last August, as outlined in the Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives. Some $55 million will be spent by the Government to facilitate repairs to schools damaged by the storm. The remaining $156.6 million will go towards the Schools Rehabilitation...

Minister of Water and Housing, Dr. Horace Chang, on Wednesday April 8, handed over a Letter of Commitment for approximately $6 million to the Western Society for the Upliftment of Children (WSUC), an organisation which seeks to educate needy and disenfranchised children in Montego Bay, St. James. The money, which Dr. Chang provided from the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), will...