Education Ministry to Acquire and Instal More CCTV Surveillance Systems In Schools

The Ministry of Education and Youth is intensifying its efforts to acquire and instal more closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance systems in schools.

“Our goal is to have all our schools with some number of CCTV installed. We have done an assessment of what exists in the system currently. We know how many there are at each school, how many are operational versus not,” Portfolio Minister, Hon. Fayval Williams, said.

She was responding to a question posed during the Education Transformation Oversight Committee (ETOC) quarterly press conference, held at the University of the West Indies Regional Headquarters at Mona in St. Andrew, on June 28.

“We have started a significant procurement to ensure that, across the length and breadth of our system, all our schools have access to that because we recognise that it is part of the safety and security architecture that we must have at our schools, to complement all the other efforts that we have to ensure safe spaces for our children,” the Minister said.

The ETOC is charged with monitoring the implementation of recommendations contained in the Report of the Professor Orlando Patterson-chaired Jamaica Education Transformation Commission (JETC).

Safety and Security fall among the areas in the Reform of Education in Jamaica 2021 Report.

The Report also covers governance and accountability; teaching, curriculum and teacher training; the tertiary sector; infrastructure and technology; technical and vocational education and training (TVET); and finance.

Meanwhile, providing an update on the areas, Chief Transformation Officer, Sophia Forbes-Hall, reported that the project concept for CCTV is being prepared for submission to the public investment appraisal branch by September 2024.

She said the procurement process has commenced to engage service providers to procure and install CCTV surveillance systems in an additional seven schools.

The schools to benefit are Norman Manley High, Yallahs High, Steer Town High, Spot Valley High, May Day High, Spanish Town High, Braeton Primary and Infant School, as well as Bustamante High School.

Furthermore, she said several school leaders have been trained in promoting safety in schools.

“The programme expansion is under way through the National College for Educational Leadership. To date, 80 additional school leaders have been trained in promoting and maintaining safety in schools. The first cohort has been trained in leadership for safer schools, comprising of 55 school leaders,” Mrs. Forbes-Hall noted.

“The second cohort has been trained in child-friendly schools, and this initiative is in partnership with UNICEF. A total of 25 school leaders have benefited, bringing us to 100 per cent in terms of our achievement of the targeted number of school leaders to be trained for the quarter,” she added.