Trust to make giving to schools easier

Minister of Education, Hon. Andrew Holness said that the newly formed National Education Trust (NET) will make it easier for local and overseas interests to donate to Jamaican schools.
“We must not frustrate philanthropy and so the Trust is designed to give the givers more information to make their giving aligned and more effective,” the Minister told representatives of some 40 past students associations in Canada at a meeting on Sunday November 14 at the Jamaican Consulate General in Toronto.
He explained that “we have designed the Trust as an institution to coordinate, promote and manage philanthropy, both in the Diaspora and locally”.
“At the Trust someone will be there to take your telephone call, to make sure there is a connection with the Ministry of Finance (and Public Service), to make sure there is a routine standard of operating procedure that once an alumni association is sending something, there is a process for it to be vetted to see that it makes sense to be sent in the first place and to make sure that the school that is receiving it, will actually get it,” he noted further.
The Education Minister said an important aspect of the Trust is to align philanthropy to national goals. He noted for example, that alumni associations could assist in improving literacy levels at their schools, noting that there is a national target of 100 per cent literacy at primary schools by 2015.
He also urged the Alliance of Jamaican Alumni Associations in Toronto to reach out to students, who attended non-traditional high schools and encourage them to form past students associations.
Minister Holness thanked the alumni associations for their contribution to Jamaica, noting that the government is appreciative of all the assistance given.
In her remarks to the alumni representatives, Jamaica’s High Commissioner to Canada, Her Excellency Sheila Sealy Monteith, commended them for their assistance to the Jamaican education sector.
“The scholarships that you give are so very important; the assistance with the construction, the purchase of furniture, books, school supplies, uniforms, and school feeding programmes,” she said.
Minister Holness was is in Canada for the Project for the Advancement of Childhood Education (PACE) Canada annual Adopt-a-school brunch on November 14, where he delivered the keynote address.