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RGD Assisting GSAT Students to get Birth Certificates

May 17, 2005

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The Registrar General’s Department (RGD) has embarked on a programme called the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) initiative, with the services of that department being taken to rural and remote communities across the island, with a view to ensuring the proper registration of the children.
This programme targets students who have recently sat or are preparing to sit the GSAT, which qualifies them for a place in a Secondary School.
Communication Officer at the RGD, Nicole Robinson has said that during the month of May each year, the RGD embarks on a programme to take its services to the communities, but this year the programme has as its special focus, GSAT students.
“We want to sensitize parents who are about to have children sit the GSAT in 2006 through to 2007, to get the birth certificates for their children, and those children who were not registered, we want those parents to start the process by getting the late registration or the late entry of name done. So that when GSAT comes around, they do not have a challenge in acquiring a certificate,” she pointed out.
Miss Robinson’s comments were made on May 16 at the Green Island Primary School in Hanover, where the RGD had set up a one-day office under the GSAT initiative.
She told JIS News that some 14 remote communities have been selected islandwide to be visited with the programme during the month of May, adding that the programme began on May 8, and that to date, eight communities have been visited.
“We will go on until May 31, when we will end at the Negril Primary School in Hanover. We have already gone to schools in Clarendon, St. Ann, and we move next to St. Thomas this week and will also return to St. Ann,” she explained.
Miss Robinson said that although the focus was on GSAT students, issues and questions related to other aspects of the services offered by the RGD are also dealt with on these visits. “We hope to reach the entire Jamaica with our services through little campaigns like these,” she said.
Principal of the Green Island Primary School, Monica McIntosh told JIS News that the RGD’s initiative was welcomed, as there were several students in the community who did not possess the proper registration certificates.
She said that the parents were grasping the opportunity to utilize the RGD services being offered for the day, expressing confidence that the future GSAT students from the school would have the necessary birth certificates.

Last Updated: May 17, 2005

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