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Skills training to be integrated into high school curriculum
Thursday, 01 October 2009 
Tenth and eleventh grade students preparing to sit their Caribbean Certificate (CASE) exams will also have to balance a new skills training programme in order to graduate.
Education MinisterHolness says a change is coming to the operations of the National Youth Service (NYS), the HEART Trust/NTA and the Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning (JFLL).
Mr. Holness outlined that the new work/study programme is aimed at reducing the number of students gravitating towards these agencies for remedial study.
He says remedial training should end at the primary level.
Secondary students should be literate and have the skills to matriculate to the tertiary level.
The Ministry decided to step in when $155 million was cut from $1 billion allocated annually to the NYS programme in the government recently revised budget.
The cuts mean the Ministry is facing the prospect of being unable to facilitate the 4,000 undereducated, unskilled, jobless youths expected to join the programme next year.
"So the NYS, HEART and JFLL their mandate remains the same but the strategy for delivering the mandate will change. We are now going to focus on the last two years of school to make sure that we do not have this problem of 26,000 and they are going to create, for the problem that now exists, a two year programme within schools," Mr. Holness said.
Putting on a worried face, the Minister pointed to data collected in 2008 which showed that every year, 26,000 of the 51-thousand high school-leavers, have no certification.
Four thousand get into the NYS, but the other 22,000 are left to float aimlessly.
"What do I do with them? Do I continue with the NYS as it is, treating only the 4,000 while the other 22,000 go unattended? I can't in all good conscience I couldn't. If there is a way to use the education system, prevent this failure at grade 11, that is strategy number one which is why the ministry is focusing so heavily on making sure that students who leave primary school going to secondary school are literate. If they are literate they can access the curriculum of secondary education," Mr. Holness said.
Skills training to be integrated into high school curriculum
Thursday, 01 October 2009 Tenth and eleventh grade students preparing to sit their Caribbean Certificate (CASE) exams will also have to balance a new skills training programme in order to graduate.Education MinisterHolness says a change is coming to the operations of the National Youth Service (NYS), the HEART Trust/NTA and the Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning (JFLL).
Mr. Holness outlined that the new work/study programme is aimed at reducing the number of students gravitating towards these agencies for remedial study.
He says remedial training should end at the primary level.
Secondary students should be literate and have the skills to matriculate to the tertiary level.
The Ministry decided to step in when $155 million was cut from $1 billion allocated annually to the NYS programme in the government recently revised budget.
The cuts mean the Ministry is facing the prospect of being unable to facilitate the 4,000 undereducated, unskilled, jobless youths expected to join the programme next year.
"So the NYS, HEART and JFLL their mandate remains the same but the strategy for delivering the mandate will change. We are now going to focus on the last two years of school to make sure that we do not have this problem of 26,000 and they are going to create, for the problem that now exists, a two year programme within schools," Mr. Holness said. Putting on a worried face, the Minister pointed to data collected in 2008 which showed that every year, 26,000 of the 51-thousand high school-leavers, have no certification.
Four thousand get into the NYS, but the other 22,000 are left to float aimlessly.
"What do I do with them? Do I continue with the NYS as it is, treating only the 4,000 while the other 22,000 go unattended? I can't in all good conscience I couldn't. If there is a way to use the education system, prevent this failure at grade 11, that is strategy number one which is why the ministry is focusing so heavily on making sure that students who leave primary school going to secondary school are literate. If they are literate they can access the curriculum of secondary education," Mr. Holness said.
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