THE Government has reiterated its intention to embark on a major redesign of the beneficiary system of the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH), as one of the immediate responses to the scores of Jamaicans who believe they are not benefiting from the relative macro-economic stability the country is now enjoying.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness made the disclosure on Thursday during a media briefing in which he argued that Jamaica can now be classified as a stable economy but admitted that this is not the daily reality of many Jamaicans.

“For many [Jamaicans] there is the sense that they are mere bystanders to this success in the economy,” said Holness.

“The Government will respond in a positive way to ensure that no Jamaican is left behind as we move towards prosperity for all Jamaicans,” added Holness.

He told the media briefing that one way his Administration intends to respond to those Jamaicans who feel left out is through the education system.

“And we also intend to respond by ensuring that those persons who are not in the labour force now, by virtue of not having skills, that they are empowered so that they can get into the labour force.

“We have decided that we are going to do a massive overhaul of PATH in significant ways to ensure that the beneficiary identification system is far more targeted than it is now,” Holness said.

He pointed out that often when he goes into communities or constituencies he is faced with complaints from people who say they want to get on the PATH programme but are told that they do not qualify.

“There is clearly a refining that needs to happen in the entire beneficiary identification system for PATH so that will be addressed to ensure that we are picking up those persons in our society who are genuinely in need of that social safety net support,” said Holness.

PATH is a social safety net programme which provides cash grants to vulnerable households within the population.

The programme is designed to increase educational attainment and improve health outcomes of the poor, alleviate poverty by increasing the value of transfer to the poor, reduce child labour by requiring children to have minimum attendance in school, and serve as a safety net for families.

For this year the Government has allocated $8.4 billion to pay cash grants to PATH beneficiaries.

A further $7 billion has been allocated to provide breakfast and cooked lunches for the beneficiaries, $1 billion through Nutrition Product Limited for the production and distribution of breakfast and snacks for students, $258 million to selected schools for the preparation of meals, $119 million to some schools to maintain their canteens, and $380 million to cover the cost of school transportation for some beneficiaries.

Holness also announced that the Government is to allocate more resources to ensure that all students are able to go back to school in a meaningful way.

While not saying how much more will be allocated, Holness said it will be in addition to what was previously announced.

“The Government has been a victim of its own success. We have handled the COVID pandemic so well and we have transitioned out of it so quickly that the average Jamaican feels there were no lagging effects of COVID and everything is done. That is not the case.

“As a result of COVID we have had high inflation which has created this social discontent, as a result of COVID we have had this increase in learning loss which we are going to see impacting generations to come…,” said Holness..

He added: “It is important that in judging the Government that the public recognises this and recognise the effort that has been made in ensuring that the ship of Jamaica is stable.”