KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Government will be focusing on literacy and numeracy as a priority, targeting children aged zero to eight during the 2025/26 legislative year.

This was stated by the Custos of Kingston, Steadman Fuller, as he delivered the 2025 Throne Speech at Gordon House Thursday morning. The Throne Speech outlines the Government’s priorities for the new parliamentary year.

Fuller said there will also be the implementation of a Special Education Policy to ensure equity and inclusivity, and the expansion of the Education Management Information System (EMIS) to more schools for real-time monitoring of attendance, performance and behaviour.

Legislative priorities include revisions to the Jamaica Teaching Council Bill to establish teacher licensing, amendments to the Education Act (1965) to update principal and board appointments and continued progress on the Jamaica Tertiary Education Commission Bill for tertiary regulation.

“Importantly, progress is ongoing in implementing the 365 recommendations from the Jamaica Education Transformation Commission Report (the Patterson Report),” Fuller noted. He said the Government remains committed to improving early childhood education by having one trained teacher in every early childhood institution in the country.

“Notably, the Government has also expanded the number of shadows working with our special needs children. In addition, a key priority is enhancing nutrition support programmes across the education system that provides much-needed meals to our students on PATH (Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education),” he added.

Currently, over 162,000 students benefit from PATH.

Fuller also shared that in digital transformation, broadband access has now reached 68 per cent of schools, with 260 Information Communication Technology (ICT) labs and 21 Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Labs at the primary level. Also, a total of 1,500 tablets were distributed to early childhood institutions and 144 interactive smart boards provisioned across the system.

“The first phase of the digital financial management system has also been implemented in 50 schools to improve fiscal management,” said Fuller.