Mr Speaker, I am pleased to update the House on the status of application for transfers from students placed by the 2015 Grade Six Achievement Test. The data collected so far is showing a 10% increase over last year to date. To date the Ministry has received a total of 1143 requests for transfers and has accepted 822, with 568...

Mr. Speaker, concerns have been raised in the media, unnecessarily so, about the Ministry of Education inclusion of guidelines against bullying in the Revised Safety and Security Manual 2015 for schools. The facts are that the guidelines will address acts of bullying by and against ALL persons. There are no special categories. The guidelines were informed by the findings of...

Mr Speaker, I am informing the House today by way of Ministry Paper #___ of the decision by the Ministry of Education, supported by Cabinet, to close eighteen (18) schools with small populations ranging from a low of sixteen (16) to a maximum of sixty eight (68) students. The closure of the schools will take effect in September 2015 and...

Mr. Speaker I have tabled in the House today a ministry paper that details the progress being made in the implementation of the Safe Schools Programme for the period 2012-2014. The Security and Safety Unit in the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the Community Safety and Security Branch of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), has been engaged in several...

Introduction   Let me address two preliminary but important points before I get into the substance of my statement.   Firstly, I would like to use this opportunity to express my condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of Constable Curtis Lewis who was attached to the Little London Police in Westmoreland. He died as result of injuries he sustained...

The Ministry notes the news reports of the early release of a Jamaican national incarcerated in Qatar. Nevertheless, the Ministry can confirm that up to today, 9th July 2015 the Jamaican national remained in custody.   The Ministry understands that there is provision in the Qatari legal system for the remission of three months sentence for each year to be...

REMARKS BY MOST HON. PORTIA SIMPSON MILLER PRIME MINISTER AT THE SIGNING OF THE NWC’S NON-REVENUE WATER CONTRACT WITH MIYA WEDNESDAY JULY 8, 2015 Salutation   Dr Alwin Hales - Master of Ceremonies and Permanent Secretary Ministry of Water, Land, Environment & Climate Change   Mr Andrew Holnes - Leader of the Opposition   Honourable Robert Pickersgill - Minister of...

Statement to the World Heritage Committee Delivered by Honourable Lisa Hanna, MP Minister of Youth and Culture Bonn, Germany, July 2015   Madam Chair, Colleagues I speak on behalf of the Government and people of Jamaica in humbly expressing our gratitude to the World Heritage Committee for its decision to inscribe the Blue and John Crow Mountains to the World...