There are 1,010 public primary and secondary schools in operation across Jamaica. Each school day just over 400,000 children attend these schools. Understandably, one of the biggest and growing calls on the budget of the Ministry of Education and Youth is the need for additional and/or expanded infrastructure with respect to classrooms and furniture to outfit these institutions.

To help address this mammoth undertaking, the MOEY has adopted a partnership approach. Simultaneously, the MOEY continues to make major investments in the repairs and delivery of furniture.

Increases in and the strengthening of partnerships alongside direct and increased allocations from the MOEY are yielding very good results.

This is why, for example, the majority of primary schools which requested desks and chairs received at least a portion in time for the start of this academic year. The focus of 2022/2023 is predominantly on the infant and primary schools, given that during the 2020-20 financial period the focus was on the secondary schools with a spend of $1.4 million per school for furniture, a total cost of $252,000,000.

In time for the beginning of 2022/2023 school year, the MOEY delivered 6,483 pieces of furniture to infant and primary schools.

Delivery of school furniture is an ongoing process. For the 2022/2023 school year the following quantities of furniture have been delivered to schools.

Distributed to date for the 2022/2023 school year:

* 9,844 students desks and chairs distributed

* 3,794 desks and chairs distributed to infant schools

* 1,142 desks and chairs distributed for teachers

* 406 schools have received furniture directly from the MOEY

Before the end of February 2023, the following are slated to be delivered:

* 2,200 student desks and chairs

* 900 desks and chairs specifically for infants

* 400 teachers desks and chairs

PARTNERSHIPS BEARING FRUITS

The MOEY also continues to reap good fruits from its Select Group Programme (SGP). This initiative facilitates the manufacture of school furniture from scratch by high school students. The furniture is then used by the school and some are sold to adjoining schools.

Projects are carried out under the careful guidance and supervision of teachers. Sometimes suitably qualified and very skilled individuals at the community level are also contracted as facilitators/supervisors.

Ten schools are at present in partnership with the MOEY to manufacture furniture for school. Four of the 10 have actually commenced production. These are:

* Brown’s Town High – St Ann

* Vere Technical High School – Clarendon

* St Andrew Technical High School – St Catherine

* Belmont Academy – Westmoreland

Distribution of furniture by these four schools is ongoing and each is required to manufacture 400 pieces (desks and chairs) each month. They commenced work on September 30, 2022 and will halt production on February 25, 2023 until new contracts are signed for the new financial year.

Alphansus Davis High School in Clarendon, Muchette High School in St Trelawny, and Port Antonio High School in Portland are slated to start production of furniture for schools before the end of January 2023. These three will be required to produce at least 200 pieces (desk and chairs) each month commencing in January 2023. Production will be halted on March 25, 2023 until new contracts are signed for the new the financial year.

The MOEY is at present in discussions with the administrations of the following schools to get them involved in the Select Group Programme:

1) Ocho Rios High School in St Ann

2) Central High School in Clarendon

3) Oracabessa High School in St Mary

The MOEY has considerably increased resources allocated to the Select Group Programme for 2022/2023 as evidenced in Table 1.

Stakeholders, I am sure, are happy to hear that the ministry is gradually reducing its reliance on external foreign contractors/contracts as the major providers/source of furniture for our schools.

This is a strategic move to help boost domestic entrepreneurship.

Significantly increasing opportunities for the hands-on training of our students in areas such as electrical technology, wood work and joinery, metal work, welding, and related skills at the school level is an obvious win-win for the Jamaican people and economy. The MOEY is committed to rewarding and developing local talent.

Consistent with our partnership model, the Jamaica Bureau of Standards (JBS) visits the school sites where manufacture and repairs of furniture take place, checks the quality of the product, and gives its stamp of approval consistent with its rigorous standards.

The Select Group Programme and related projects are a win-win for all the stakeholders as it has provided an economic and social boost for students and skilled people in numerous communities, while eliciting great creativity in workmanship and use of different materials.

FULL STEAM AHEAD

The MOEY has commenced work to utilise the Jamaica Safe School Project database to function as a property maintenance management database. This will alert and cue maintenance projects throughout the education system.

There are plans to construct six science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) schools and a performing arts school in the coming years. Prime Minister Andrew Holness led the ground-marking ceremony in October 2022 for the first of these schools, which will be located in the community of Dunbeholden, Bernard Lodge, St Catherine.

STEAM education programmes are critical in preparing today’s children to become the innovators and inventors of tomorrow.

STEAM-centred education helps children with far more than science and mathematics concepts. STEAM is also heavily focused on hands-on learning and real-world applications for the 21st century.

Within the wide arena of STEAM, there are some growth areas that are expanding rapidly. Robotics is one and coding is another.

The MOEY is encouraged by the steady expansion of robotics engineering in our schools. The local pioneering work of stakeholders at Jamaica College, Calabar High School, Wolmer’s Girls’ School, Wolmer’s Boys’ School, Ardenne High School, Kingston College, York Castle High School, Glenmuir High School, Convent of Mercy Academy “Alpha”, and Immaculate Conception High School in the area of robotics is great credit to those institutions.

The international recognition gained by these schools through the copping of several international awards in globally recognised competitions should be celebrated and emulated.

Coding, the process of writing computer programmes, is a growth area that the MOEY is giving much focus.

Last year approximately 5,000 students were registered for the National Coding in Schools Programme. Some 400,000 students from grades one to 13 in public schools across Jamaica, for example, will benefit from a partnership with Amber Group Limited, which was launched by the Prime Minister Holness in 2021.

The Government is pulling out all the stops to ensure that Jamaica is not left behind in a world where rapid economic growth is dependent on timely access to information technologies. The Government believes our people are innately gifted. We have the ability not only to be users of technologies, but more importantly creators of technologies.

Consequently, the Government is committed to redoubling efforts to ensure that access to quality education is provided to all our children.

Fayval Williams is the Minister of Education and Youth and Member of Parliament for St Andrew Eastern.