JPS and Partners Co-Operative Lauded for Focus on Education

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw, has lauded the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) and Partners Co-operative Credit Union Limited, for their emphasis on education, and encouraged other corporate entities to follow suit.
“The Jamaica Survey of Living Conditions, tells us that, anywhere from 75 to 78 per cent of our young people, are leaving high school without the benefit of a skill. It is going to require our collective effort to fight the problem, and it is within that context (that) I celebrate and applaud the JPS and Partners Co-operative Credit Union, for the emphasis that you are placing on education,” Mr. Shaw said, in his address at the entity’s 2008 scholarship awards presentation, at the Knutsford Court Hotel in Kingston on Thursday (Aug. 14).
The Finance Minister noted that this initiative, “needs to be emulated, I believe, by the entire credit union system, and it needs to be emulated by everybody, by corporate Jamaica. We need more partnerships, in a broader sense, to really recognise the problem that we face, and to do something about it.”
“I want to congratulate the credit union for its very impressive growth over the years. I believe in the concept of credit unions, this sort of simple but sure-footed basis of participation, where you encourage thrift, you encourage savings, and from that you encourage modest approaches to credit risk. And so, in that growth, you have ended up with this very impressive asset base of over $2 billion, and your ability to assist your membership in so many ways,” Mr. Shaw further noted.
In his remarks, President of the Credit Union, Derrick Tulloch, said that the JPS and Partners Co-operative, as responsible corporate citizens, saw it fit to provide financial support for the children of members as they pursued their educational goals. Further that, in facilitating these scholarship awards, “JPS and Partners are helping to fulfil the desires of some of our members who are parents. In addition, the credit union is ensuring that the nation benefits, as these awardees will later take their places in society by contributing to national development.”
“Annually,” he continued, “we seek to commit at least one million dollars towards the Educational Fund, from which the awardees today will benefit. We have also partnered with the Central Branch Primary School, in the inner city, to which we provide financial and moral support.”
The Albert “Bertie” Morris Scholarship, named after one of the JPS and Partners Co-operative Credit Union Limited’s founders, is awarded each year, to a member or member’s child, tenable at one of the island’s universities. This year’s recipient, Janine Fisher, was presented with a cheque valued at $150,000.
Additionally, the credit union awarded bursaries to the children of members who were successful in this year’s Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT). Each year, students are selected from a list of applicants on the basis of need and performance. The credit union supports each awardee over a three-year period, providing the student maintains, at least, a B average in his or her studies.