KINGSTON, Jamaica – Minister of Education and Youth, Fayval Williams, has welcomed the findings of the Jamaica Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2022: Situation of Women and Children.

Addressing Friday’s launch at the University of the West Indies Regional Headquarters in St Andrew, Williams said the data-rich report adds to other recently published studies on Jamaican students and the indicators and variables that may be having an impact on their educational outcomes.

“The MICS 2022 report affirms positives, such as the 94 per cent on-track score for children ages two to four years, who are developmentally on track in health, learning and psychosocial well-being. At the same time, it highlights areas that need to be addressed urgently, such as the out-of-school rate for children, ages three to five and 15 to 17, with boys being disproportionately affected,” she said.

Williams explained that the Ministry supports 7,500 students with a transportation subsidy, “but that’s just a drop in the bucket and it’s an area that we would definitely love more budget support on”.

Regarding school meals, the Minister said lunch and breakfast are provided to 100,000 students on the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH).

In the upcoming 2024/25 fiscal year, Williams said $7 billion will be allocated for the school-feeding programme.

She pointed out that school gardens are critical to supplementing lunch programmes, adding that $25 million is earmarked for that undertaking in the upcoming fiscal year.

Williams also noted that the Ministry will be seeking to collect real-time attendance data by installing the Education Management Information System (EMIS) across schools.

-JIS