Co-Chair of the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC), Richard Byles, says Jamaicans should exercise patience, as the country continues to work to achieve higher growth. Mr. Byles, who was addressing journalists at the EPOC’s monthly press briefing on September 8, in Kingston, said growth in the Jamaican economy is not easy to come by, and the recent series of reported...

Co-chair of the Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC), Richard Byles, says that Jamaica’s economy continues to perform “pretty well” under the Economic Reform Programme. Addressing a monthly press briefing of EPOC on September 8, Mr. Byles presented figures for July and August, which showed continuous improvements in the Net International Reserves (NIR) and the cumulative primary surplus. For the period...

Labour and Social Security Minister, Hon. Derrick Kellier, is advising persons, who feel that they have been unjustly denied access to, or removed from the Programme for Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), to make a report to the appeals committee in each parish. Mr. Kellier, who was speaking during a tour of the Ministry’s Hanover parish office on Friday,...

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Elaine Foster-Allen, says the Ministry is optimistic that the literacy rate among students at the grade four level will reach the 85 per cent target by 2015. This, she said, is based on significantly improved results in the 2013/14 academic year, which saw 76.3 per cent of the youngsters, who sat the Grade...

Residents of the Goodwin Park Boys Hostel, operated under the Possibility Programme, are now benefitting from a reading room, outfitted with over 800 books. The reading room, which was established by the National Youth Service (NYS) in collaboration with the Rotary Club of St. Andrew, was unveiled on Monday, September 8, at the hostel’s premises on South Camp Road, Kingston....

Ground was broken at Wolmer’s Boys’ School, in Kingston, on September 5, to commence construction of a new $170 million auditorium. The new building, which is slated for completion in April 2015, will replace the previous structure, which served the all-boys school for many years and was destroyed by fire in January 1991. Speaking at the ceremony, Chairman of the...

Two members of the internationally-acclaimed Spanish humanitarian organization, ‘Clowns without Borders’ (‘Payasos sin Fronteras’) are currently in Jamaica for a series of engagements between Monday, September 8 and Friday, September 12,  involving over 600 children and close to 200 child care practitioners. Their visit, which is being jointly facilitated by the Embassy of Spain in Jamaica, and the Spanish-Jamaican Foundation...