ST James has become the 11th parish across the island to participate in the Jamaica National Heritage Trust’s (JNHT) public education programme for schools.

Twenty-five schools in the parish will be targeted under the programme that already has over 108,000 students from 290 schools involved.

Director of public education at the JNHT, Bosworth Mullings said the launch of the programme in St James was timely.

“What has been happening is that the different sites are being destroyed and we don’t have a sense of history and importance of them,” Mullings said.

The JNHT has declared 13 buildings and areas in St James as national monuments. These include the Dome along Creek Street, St Mary’s Anglican Church, Rose Hall Great House and the Old Court House in Sam Sharpe Square.

The Old Court House was destroyed by fire in September 1968, but is now being refurbished by the government under the San Jose Accord. It is slated to be completed in June and will house the St James Civic Centre.

And Mullings stressed that heritage sites were of little importance without knowledge of the history of the people who were involved.

“When we preserve sites, we also preserve the memory of the people in our nation who have really contributed to the development of a particular community,” he said.

Several sections of the island are being positioned as heritage tourism sites, a move that officials claim has excellent potential for growth and the development of the country.

According to Mullings, while it was important to forge links with organisations such as the parish council and related agencies, children also played a significant role in tapping this potential.

“We would also like to have (it) on the front (of the minds) of the young people who would then go and speak with their parents,” the JNHT spokesman said.

He said that curricula of schools across the island were being examined carefully, as there were some weaknesses regarding the teaching of heritage in schools.

“There is actually heritage in the schools already, but it is infused in the various subjects, but not strongly so. So we are looking at the curriculum to see where are the weak areas and what are the resources that we need to develop in order to strengthen those areas,” he said.

The JNHT launched its public education programme in schools in 1995 in the parish of St Catherine where 38 schools have become involved. The organisation, which is responsible for over 300 national sites and monuments across the island, hopes to increase the number of schools in the programme to 315, by the end of the school year.