THE National Youth Service (NYS) and the Jamaica Foundation for Lifelong Learning (JFLL), decades-old entities known for educating and training young people and older adults alike, will soon cease to exist as Government effects plans to have their functions subsumed by the HEART Trust/NTA.

The move is expected to take effect, at least in part, on April 1 when the new financial year begins.

Minister of state in the education ministry, Floyd Green, told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that: “The committee is actively working on the plans, but functionally, you won’t begin to see a coming together, especially in terms of budget, until April 1.”

At the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing earlier in the day, Education Minister Ruel Reid argued that the merger will eliminate duplication of functions in the entities, thereby enhancing their efficiency.

“If you look at JFLL, there is a lot of overlap and duplication with some of the programmes at NYS and HEART. What we’re doing is putting all of them under one umbrella and expanding the scope. For example, when you look at some of the youth activities… we have more HEART institutions across the island, so what we can do is work through those physical institutions for greater reach and impact,” he told reporters.

The HEART Trust/NTA is a human resource training organisation that focuses on technical and vocational skills. It has 28 campuses across the island, compared to 13 NYS field offices and more than 20 sites from where the JFLL programme is offered.

Reid said the combined budget for both NYS and JFLL was about $800 million, which HEART will absorb, “allow(ing) [for] the resources to be otherwise utilised for other activities within the broader Ministry of Education operations”.

“This is not new,” the minister said of the merger, stressing that it is a recommendation made by the Public Sector Transformation Unit in the Public Sector Master Rationalisation Plan of 2011. “It’s in the public sector rationalisation programme that’s been in the works for the longest and we’ve been talking, talking [with] very little action. We’re the largest ministry outside of [the ministry of] finance in terms of budget, and it is in our interest to bring our portfolio activities together so we have more synergy and efficiency.”

Outside of cost-savings and operational efficiency, Reid argued that other compelling reasons for the merger are the fact that HEART currently relies on JFLL to bring its illiterate applicants up to standard before admitting them into its technical and vocational programmes, and the stigma that is still associated with adults seeking remedial learning.

“As it is now, you can’t get into HEART if you’re not literate, and over the years HEART has been using JFLL to make those same students ready before they transition into HEART programmes. So why not just put the two together and create the efficiency?” he reasoned.

By the minister’s account, the merger will see some 14,000 students being absorbed into HEART/NTA programmes.

Asked how the merger will affect staffing, Minister Reid said there are no plans to cut staff

“This is a classic example of shared services. We believe that because education overall is underresourced, when we rationalise we can reallocate those resources to where they are most needed.

“The programme the Government has, and the prime minister has said it, is not about sending people home. It’s about how to consolidate government operation in the first instance, and reallocate the resources to where they are most needed before we contemplate any separation,” Reid said.

NYS was founded in 1973. Its corps programme targets youth 17 – 24, who it trains in specific career, resocialisation, and employability skills. It also operates an annual summer programme — through which it places young people in entry-level positions in public and private sector bodies — the Graduate Work Experience programme, and a financial assistance programme which assists participants of its corps programme seeking to complete tertiary education.

The JFLL, meanwhile, previously Jamaican Movement for the Advancement of Literacy (JAMAL), first opened its doors in 1974 as the Government’s response to illiteracy among people 15 and over. It offers the High School Diploma Equivalency, a non-formal programme targeting learners 17 years old and over who, for one reason or another, didn’t successfully complete education in the formal sector. In its current dispensation, it also offers life skills training, the training of literacy practitioners, workplace education, and computer education.

“The HSDE programme is based on a ‘second chance’ concept with the intention of providing learners with access to continuing education opportunities in the pursuit of their personal, professional and academic goals,” the JFLL website says.

With respect to The public sector modernisation plan it indicates that if all its recommendations are implemented, there will be net savings to the Government of $49.74 billion over a five-year period, with $25.45 billion accruing in the first two years.