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New application forms for persons seeking loans from the Students' Loan Bureau (SLB) are to be introduced this year. Executive Director of the Students' Loan Bureau, Lenice Barnett said that the new application forms would determine persons who were genuinely in need of a loan. Mrs. Barnett made the disclosure while addressing a seminar last week for principals and guidance...

Another public/private sector partnership has been forged which will see over 570 persons from approximately 200 companies who offer services to the trading community being trained to use Jamaica Trade Point, the trade facilitation portal. In this, Jamaica Trade Point has joined forces with the New Economy Project (NEP), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Jamaica Export...

Confidence in both political parties and governments throughout the Caribbean and Latin America has fast been eroding, so much so that, people have been mobilizing themselves more into organizations in an attempt to enunciate their views and opinions in order to create change. According to Senator Delano Franklyn, Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade,...

Chairman of the Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica, Dr. Simon Clarke, has been elected Chairman of the Administrative Commission of the International Bureau of Education (IBE) at the recently concluded 51st session of its Governing Council held in Geneva. Dr. Clarke, who for the past two years served the Governing Council as Vice-President for the Latin American and Caribbean region and...

The Senate yesterday (Feb. 20) passed amendments to the Protection of Geographical Indications Act, 2003, which will see fines for breaches of the Act increased to more meaningful levels. When Minister of Commerce, Science and Technology Phillip Paulwell piloted the Bill in the House of Representatives on January 13, he explained that it would help to further demonstrate that the...

Better care is on the way for nursing home residents as well as stricter guidelines and more realistic fees and fines for operators of nursing homes following amendments to the Nursing Homes Registration Act in the Senate. Leader of Government Business in the Senate and Minister of Information, Senator Burchell Whiteman, who piloted the Bill on Friday (Feb. 20) explained...

Scores of residents and other well-wishers from a number of parishes, turned out recently to witness the official opening and handing over ceremony of a new block of classrooms and computer laboratory at the Sandy Bank Primary School, which is situated in Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth. The new block has been dubbed the "Cobb Building" in recognition of the tangible...

A recent trace study conducted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has revealed that approximately 60 per cent of youth who participate in programmes that the National Youth Service (NYS) operates either go on to being employed on a full-time basis or pursue higher learning in tertiary institutions. In an interview with JIS News, Executive Director of NYS, Reverend Adinhair...

Government is committed to the access to information initiative and is going all out to ensure that the public is fully informed about the opportunities at their disposal and the procedures involved in accessing official government documents. Information Minister Senator Burchell Whiteman, who addressed scores of students at an Access to Information/Values and Attitudes forum at the University of the...

State Minister in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture, Senator Noel Monteith has expressed confidence that the Jamaica Teachers' Association will eventually lend its support to the recently signed historical Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) between the government and trade unions representing the public sector. "As a past president of the JTA, I understand their methods of doing things and...

An agreement setting out guidelines for the recruitment of teachers within the Commonwealth could be ready by September. According to a release from the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, the Commonwealth Working Group on Teacher Recruitment is expected to submit a draft agreement on teacher recruitment to Commonwealth education ministers by April 2004 and a Ministerial Group is expected to finalize...

The 26 members of the Jamaica Society Leeds will be vacationing on the island in mid-March, and for one member of the group, it will be a very special visit to the homeland he has not seen since he was 18 years old. Marcus Mitchell's strong Jamaican accent belies the fact that he has not visited his homeland for some...