Bath Primary gets computer lab

BATH, St Thomas — A fully equipped computer laboratory costing about $1.5 million was officially opened at the Bath Primary and Junior High School in St Thomas last week by Prime Minister P J Patterson.

The laboratory, comprising 15 computers, work stations, chairs and the teacher’s station, is a gift from the National Housing Trust (NHT), as part of its 25th Anniversary ‘Computer in Schools Project’.

Under the project, the NHT will equip at least one school in each parish with a computer laboratory to assist in the teaching of reading and mathematics. The programme will provide Information Technology (IT) training for four teachers and one laboratory administrator from grades one to four. Additionally, the NHT will maintain the laboratory for two years, after which the school will be required to submit a plan to the NHT for maintaining the facility.

This is the seventh school to be presented with a laboratory. Schools which have already benefited are Lowe River Primary and Junior High in Trelawny; St Alban’s Primary in St Elizabeth; New Hope Primary and Junior High, and Unity Primary both in Westmoreland; Bamboo Primary and Junior High in St Ann and Flankers Primary and Junior High in St James.

Tree-planting programme in Swift River

PORT ANTONIO, Portland — The Portland Environment Protection Association (PEPA), will be implementing the tree-planting and environmental development programme in the Swift River area of the parish, with the assistance of the Japanese Government.

A grant of US$81,000 (J$3.85 million) was recently handed over to PEPA by the Japanese ambassador to Jamaica, Isao Otsuka.

Among the projects to be facilitated under the programme are the planting of fruit trees, the construction of the community centre, and the refurbishing of the Bloomfield All-Age School.

UDC to build 17 schools in western parishes

OCHO RIOS, St Ann — The Urban Development Corporation (UDC) will, in the coming financial year, assume responsibility for the construction of 17 new educational institutions in the parishes of St James, Westmoreland, Hanover and Trelawny, Prime Minister P J Patterson has said.

Patterson told journalists after the UDC’s annual board retreat here Saturday that the schools — five basic, four primary and eight comprehensive high — will be built by the UDC on behalf of the Ministry of Education.

He said that the agency was one that had consistently maintained a track record in the implementation of projects which impacted positively on the physical and social fabric of the society.

Marginal decline in stop-over arrivals

MAY PEN, Clarendon — Minister of tourism and sport, Portia Simpson Miller, said that Jamaica experienced just a 3.5 per cent decline in stop-over visitor arrivals last year, despite the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

According to Simpson Miller, the decline was marginal when compared to the losses experienced by other Caribbean countries.

Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) data indicate that there were 1,276,516 stop-over arrivals from January to December in 2001, while for the previous year 1,322,690 stop-over visits were recorded.

Simpson Miller said that the tourism partners in Jamaica were to be congratulated for their efforts in minimising the losses, due primarily to the “use of good marketing, promotions and public relations skills”.