Education Sector Transformation Now ‘TRENDING’

The Ministry of Education and Youth on Thursday (November 2) hosted its inaugural Transforming Education for National Development (TREND) townhall.

The series is intended to further support the education system’s transformation.

Thursday’s forum, which was held inside the Jamaica College auditorium, gave the Ministry and other stakeholders an opportunity to outline how the recommendations contained in the Professor Orlando Patterson-led Jamaica Education Transformation Commission (JETC) report will be implemented.

Portfolio Minister, Hon. Fayval Williams, in her address, told the in-person and online audience that the town hall was designed to share the context and purpose behind the TREND initiative.

“TREND aims to involve members of the public, including students, teachers, parents and school Boards as well as anyone with an interest in Jamaica’s education system and its contribution to national development,” she informed.

The Minister noted that despite some outstanding achievements, “our public education system has had instances where the outcomes fell short of our expectations; over the past year, in light of the 365 recommendations from the JETC… we have started the work and implementation”.

According to the Patterson report, there are seven pillars of transformation within the education sector.

These are governance, legislation, leadership and administration, early-childhood education, curriculum teaching and teacher training; the tertiary sector; technical and vocational education and training (TVET), infrastructure and technology, and financing.

A report on the progress of the transformation is given quarterly, with the Minister noting that in the last report, it was revealed that 20 per cent of the recommendations were underway, adding that this is “no easy task”.

For her part, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Dr. Kasan Troupe, indicated that with the first townhall being held, the TREND wave is officially getting started.

“Next week, we’re going to be doing the school pop-ups starting at St. Andrew Technical High School, talking to the young people, interfacing with them, making sure that they know about the pillars of transformation,” she said.

“We want this to be a household conversation, so we’re going to be going around to our schools. We have seven pop-ups planned right across our regions – one in each region. We started having some radio interviews, we are running with the TREND ad, we should be getting into our TREND dance, we have TV interviews… we want to be around the country. We want every single stakeholder to understand what the TREND is all about [and] what the change is going to look like,” Dr. Troupe added.

Key stakeholders involved in Thursday’s town hall included Chairman, Education Transformation Oversight Committee, Dr. Adrian Stokes; Chief Executive Officer, National Parenting Support Commission, Kaysia Kerr; President, National Parent-Teachers’ Association of Jamaica, Stewart Jacobs; President, Jamaica Teachers’ Association, Leighton Johnson; and Executive Director, Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, Sacha Vaccianna Riley.