PM reassures education ministry officials of strong policy guidelines
PRIME Minister Andrew Holness yesterday met with the executive leadership of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information at the Ministry’s offices at Heroes’ Circle in Kingston.
The prime minister made the visit after he directed that the Office of the Prime Minister assume temporary oversight of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, following the sacking of the minister, Ruel Reid, in light of a corruption scandal rocking the ministry and some of its agencies.
Karl Samuda, minister without portfolio, has been assigned temporary responsibility for the education ministry as the administration and governance reviews take place.
A Jamaica House release said Holness, at yesterday’s meeting, focused on the administration, service delivery, policy direction and management of the ministry.
He told staff that his role is to ensure that the ministry properly carries out its misison with policy directives and that the system works efficiently in the interest of the people of Jamaica.
“The strategy that I have put in place is to bring the ministry under the Office of the Prime Minister (temporarily) under my direct supervision. I will go through all the boards, speak to all the board chairpersons and board members, to understand from them the mission that they were given and to see how we can improve that mission. We [will] then focus on governance to make sure that the way in which the public body or the department or agency is run aligns with our national governance standards. If I find any weaknesses then, working with the permanent secretary or any other executive officer, we [will] put in place the necessary programmes or if it becomes necessary, have the boards changed,” the release quoted Prime Minister Holness.
“From a broad policy level, there always were questions about the effectiveness of, for example, the National Education Transformation. We’ve gone more than 10 years since transformation. We want to know whether that massive investment that was made we’re getting results now. This is an opportunity to, if necessary, have a recommitment — a national recommitment towards education,” said Holness.
