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The Diaspora organisation Read Across Jamaica Foundation, has extended its literacy programme to the Auchtembedie All-age in Manchester, on Monday (Jan. 19) donating reading material and a computer to the institution. The Foundation, which was founded in 2004 by a group of Jamaicans residing in Maryland in the United States, is aimed at strengthening reading among primary and all-age school...

The Ministry of Education's (MOE) Competence-based Transition Policy, which will ensure that every child progressing to secondary school is literate, will come into effect in June this year. Senior Director of Human Resource and Modernisation in the Ministry, Ruth Morris, explained to JIS News that under the policy, no child, who is illiterate, will be allowed to sit the Grade...

The country's health sector has been boosted with the recent graduation of 44 general nursing and basic midwifery students from the Cornwall School of Nursing. Addressing the graduating ceremony held recently at King's Seventh Day Adventist Church in Mt. Salem, St. James, Rev. Everton Jackson, Pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church in Montego Bay, urged the graduates to use their...

The Ministry of Education is drafting a policy which seeks to regulate the movement of students from the primary level of the school system to the secondary level. The 'Competence-based Transition Policy' will be implemented to ensure that all children progressing to the Secondary Level are certified literate. Under the new policy, pupils must achieve mastery on the Grade Four...

Fifteen-year old John-Henry Noel Marley, Jamaican born and resident of Tampa, Florida, will join the millions expected to attend the inauguration ceremony of the 44th President of the United States of America (USA), Barack Obama, to be held next Tuesday (Jan. 20) in Washington, D.C. A high-achieving student of the King High School International Baccalaureate Programme (IBP) in Tampa, John-Henry...

Preparing for, and facing disasters is customary for the people of Portland as in recent years, several natural disasters including hurricanes, landslides, and flooding, have affected many communities in the parish. Hence, most Portlanders have become highly sensitised about the damage these events leave in their wake, and the need to be fully prepared for their occurrence in order to...

Education Minister Andrew Holness today (January 14, 2009) met with the leadership of the Heritage International Scholarship Foundation, a Canadian-based non-profit organisation, to discuss funding options for higher education in Jamaica. According to the President of the organisation, Mr Jason Macquire, the organisation has been providing educational funding to Jamaican families since 1992 through its Education Savings Plan (ESP). This...

This year as Earthquake Awareness Week is observed, and activities spearheaded by the ODPEM, the nation has been reminded that necessary precautions must be taken on a continuous basis as quakes have no season and can strike at any time. It is with this in mind that the Bethabara Primary and Junior High, in Manchester, for many years has made...

A special programme has been developed by the HEART Trust/National Training Agency (NTA), to retrain workers who are laid off, in an effort to guide them towards alternative job opportunities or to start their own businesses. Addressing the nation on December 14, Prime Minister Bruce Golding urged employers who may be "forced to lay off workers as well as the...

Senior Education Officer in the Core Curriculum Unit, of the Ministry of Education, Herma Meade, has announced that the second annual general meeting for teachers of modern languages will be staged on Friday September 26, in an attempt to better improve students' performance in these subjects. She made the announcement during an interview with JIS News yesterday (Sept. 24). "The...

Acting Assistant Chief Education Officer, Sharon Neil, has described the Centres of Excellence, which have been established in two rural high schools as timely and in keeping with the Education Ministry's thrust, to involve the private sector in education delivery. Speaking recently at the Mile Gully High School in Manchester, she commended the Mutual Building Societies Foundation, for conceptualising and...

Education and training are regarded as key components of Vision 2030, a 23-year development plan, which seeks to position the country as a place of choice to live, work, do business, and raise families. To this end, the Human Employment and Resource Training (HEART) Trust/National Training Agency (NTA), has embarked on the development of a (five-year) strategic plan, aimed at...