Preparations Far Advanced for New School Year

With a few weeks remaining before the official start of the 2023/24 academic year, the Ministry of Education and Youth is reporting that preparations are far advanced.

The school year begins on September 4, 2023.

In an interview with JIS News following today’s (August 16) post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, Portfolio Minister, Hon. Fayval Williams, said work is being done to complete the distribution of textbooks as well as the provision of furniture to primary and high schools.

“In terms of textbook distribution, many of the books are in the system already. In terms of students’ desks and chairs, those are going out as well, but I suspect we will still have distribution going out into September for desks and chairs, because maintenance was needed on many desks and chairs in addition to new ones,” she noted.

The Minister said several strategies are being undertaken to ensure that schools are sufficiently staffed on resumption.

These include but are not limited to the engagement of teachers on approved vacation leave, empowering school Boards to take early recruitment decisions, the engagement of part-time teachers, engagement of retired teachers and pre-trained graduate teachers, redeployment of training of underutilised staff, as well as the merging of smaller classes.

“We are at a better place at it relates to teachers in the system,” she said.

The Minister said, as well, that maintenance work continues on school plants.

“During the pandemic, our schools were closed, locked up and so when we went back to face-to-face mode, there was a lot of work needed to be done,” she pointed out.

“Termites had eaten down lots of things at our schools and we have been taking the time to ensure that systematically we upgrade the schools, and we are doing that. It’s an ongoing process to ensure that there is adequate maintenance in our schools,” the Minister explained.

Additionally, Mrs. Williams said work is progressing in ensuring that schools have adequate broadband connectivity.

The Ministry has partnered with the Ministry of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport and the Ministry of Economic Growth & Job Creation to develop an affordable and robust approach to the provision of adequate Internet connectivity to all public schools.

“Our broadband connectivity project continues. It started during the pandemic and continued all the way. We are about 50 per cent there in terms of the number of schools that have been connected and we will [work] to ensure that all our schools have adequate connectivity,” she told JIS News.

She added, too, that support is being provided for the development of teachers as well as lesson plan assistance.

“In terms of teacher support and so on, we have been utilising the online facility to enable professional development of teachers. We have provided a lesson plan portal for them, so they don’t have to sit down during their weekend and try to grow from scratch to create lesson plans; they just pull one down, and modify it according to their needs,” she told JIS News.

The Minister further noted that a job bank portal will be coming on stream shortly which will provide greater access to teachers and principals.

“Right now, without the job bank, teachers can only look at an ad in the papers if the school advertises, because you know they have to pay for that or they ask a friend or they just do a cold-call to the school.

“With the job bank, when it’s fully populated, we know that both sides, the schools that are in need and the teachers, can be in that virtual space and we have a better matching of the two sides,” she said.

The portal can be accessed at jobs@moey.gov.jm