MONTEGO BAY, St James — A school for boys that will focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics is to be built in Norwood, St James, according to National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang.

The school, which is to be built on a section of a 25-acre parcel of land between Ironshore and Norwood, will be one of six such schools to be rolled out across the island.

“In the initial stages we may very well make it a boys’ school because we have a real challenge with space for boys in St James, and we have real challenge with education for our young males,” said Dr Chang, who is also the Member of Parliament for St James North Western.

He said that while there is much focus on young males’ involvement in criminal activities, enough attention was not being paid to transforming the education system inherited from the colonial era, which, he suggested, is designed to suppress boys.

“There is a real challenge with education for young boys in St James… It’s an area that I have spoken on… if I start talking I could get on for too long because I have a real passion about it because while we have a lot of challenges with criminal activities involving young men, the country very often doesn’t recognise that we have an education system which is designed to really suppress our young, humble males in the society and that means 99 per cent young, black males,” Dr Chang said.

“The entire system is designed to put them at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. That’s the education system we inherited and we have not done enough to change it,” he argued.

He said that the establishment of three training institutions in his constituency is among the measures he had taken to help young males. He made references to a partnership with HEART Trust to offer auto mechanics and electrical programmes at Glendevon Vocational Skills Training Centre and the expansion of the Jamaica National Service Corps to Flanker in the parish.

Chang was speaking at a ceremony to rename Quebec Avenue in Ironshore the Dr Horace Chang Boulevard, last Thursday afternoon. The thoroughfare stretches from Ironshore to Norwood.

Mayor of Montego Bay and chairman of the St James Municipal Corporation Councillor Homer Davis expressed pleasure that under his tenure, a commitment to rename the road in the honour of Dr Chang, who has served Jamaica in various capacities in the public and private sectors, has been fulfilled.

“On behalf of the councillors of the municipality, I express profound happiness in being able to deliver today on a commitment, that of affixing the name of Dr Horace Chang to this roadway… a thoroughfare which he conceptualised and built for the wonderful people of St James in general and the community of Norwood in particular. Today’s ceremony is a dream come true for me and for members of the political directorate of the St James Municipal Corporation,” Mayor Davis said.

Senator Charles Sinclair, in his address, said it is only fitting that Dr Chang, “a quintessential man” who has been invested with the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander [CD], be honoured “at home”.