Labs in Secondary Schools to Be Equipped

A total of 189 labs across secondary schools are to be transformed through an initiative by the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, to allow Jamaican students to better hone their skills.

Portfolio Minister, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon, said that through the Jamaica Education Project, some US$30 million will be spent to equip these labs.

“Agriculture is built on the core Sciences and our students deserve the equipment to hone their skills. I go around to a lot of schools and I’m really disappointed when I go into the schools and I see labs – the Biology lab, the Chemistry lab, the Physics lab – with zero equipment. And that is a problem, so this year my commitment has been that we are going to fix the labs,” she said.

The Minister was delivering the keynote address at an Inspirational Motivational Day event, at the Portland-based College of Agriculture, Science and Education (CASE) on January 25.

She underscored that one of the reasons for the project is because CASE needs students who have done experiments in their schools before.

“So, hopefully, when the students come here, they will be better equipped with their formative Science training,” the Minister added.

Furthermore, Dr. Morris-Dixon pointed out that agriculture must be married to technology, and agricultural-based careers must also reap the benefits of modern technological advancements.

“While the benefits of integrating technology in agriculture are evident, challenges such as equipment maintenance costs, the need for data standardisation and a lack of skills to utilise the tools remain. To achieve food security, it is essential to address these issues to ensure that technological advancements are accessible and beneficial to all farmers,” she emphasised.

The Minister reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to supporting institutions like CASE, while pointing to some of the projects that are ongoing in schools across the country, such as the National School Garden Project.

Through this, school gardens are established, thereby promoting hands-on agricultural education and contributing to the national school-feeding programme.

Furthermore, the Minister emphasised that students must be better prepared for the tertiary level of their educational journey.

“As we look on tertiary, we have to remember that the tertiary students come from our secondary and our primary system, so we have to fix those so that you can get better quality input and, therefore, you can actually take them to an even higher level,” she said.

Inspirational Motivational Day at CASE was held as part of Founders’ Weekend 2025, where the institution also celebrated its 115th anniversary.