Education Minister Commends Principals

Minister of Education, Hon. Rev. Ronald Thwaites, has commended Principals and Vice-Principals of educational institutions, for the “outstanding leadership” displayed in getting the new school term off to a good start.

“This has been one of the smoothest starts of the academic year that we have had (for a long time),” the Minister noted.

Rev. Thwaites was delivering the keynote address at the 22^nd Annual Conference of the Association of Principals and Vice-Principals, held at the Grand Palladium Resort and Spa in Lucea, Hanover, on October 17.

The Minister encouraged the principals and vice-principals to continue to give of their best in leadership and the professional management of the school plant, for the ultimate benefit of the children in their charge.

“As leaders in the school, we have to be very prudent (because) the genius of the times is doing more with what we have, and ensuring that waste and unnecessary expenditure is obviated,” Rev. Thwaites said.

He also called on the leadership of all schools never to reach the stage when they begin to “tribalize education in Jamaica.”

“Let us be absolutely clear that the purpose of political action is to uplift the condition and standard of the nation through its people.  The most crucial aspect of that upliftment is the primacy and the efficacy of education, because nothing else is going to work unless we have an educated population,” the Minister emphasised.

Rev. Thwaites cited the heroic efforts of the principals to successfully keep schools open in the face of the Chikungunya Virus, noting that only one school had to be closed.

He informed that in collaboration with the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, the Ministry of Education fully supports the National School Clean-up Project and called on the entire leadership of educational institutions across Jamaica to ensure their maximum support and participation.