FALMOUTH, Trelawny — Pointing to years of inadequate resources for the country’s technical high schools, Education Minister Dr Dana Dixon says HEART/NSTA Trust is now finalising the renovation of TVET laboratories for 14 schools.

TVET is short for technical and vocational education and training.

“One of the key things we’re doing, too, is building out our labs in our technical high schools. Our technical high schools have been forgotten for a long time, and when you go there, you see their labs are in a deplorable state. And so what we’ve done is to, through HEART, develop labs for 14 schools [which] are in the process of finalising what lab each school will have. But technical education is critical for the future, and we’ve not really focused enough on our technical high schools and giving them the kinds of technology and tools that’s needed,” said the minister.

She was speaking, Tuesday, during the Jamaica Teachers’ Association Education Conference 2025, held at the Ocean Coral Spring in Trelawny, under the theme: ‘Innovation in Education Technology: The Imperative of Change.’

According to Dixon, the three-day JTA conference’s focus on technology aligns well with the education ministry’s current initiatives. She emphasised the importance of collaboration, noting that after the recent special needs conference, she requested and received a report from the JTA, which she intends to use in shaping policy. Stressing that effective policy cannot be created in isolation, she encouraged participants to do the same following the ongoing conference.

During her speech at the event, the minister also spoke about the importance of connectivity; an issue frequently raised in discussions about access to education.

“We’re also doing more in terms of broadband. And we’re trying to fix the issues. I know many of you have the broadband in schools, and it’s not fast enough. It’s not working…We’ve done a procurement to get significantly more equipment and also bandwidth for the schools, because ultimately, the goal is to be able to have Wi-Fi across the entire school campus, and so that’s what we’re working on during this year,” said Dixon.

She pointed to challenges in rural areas, where connectivity has been particularly problematic.

“We also had a problem with many of our rural schools, where it was hard to get the technology in. And so what we have done is to partner with Starlink so that we can use satellite technology to deliver the Internet to schools in rural areas. And so several schools have gotten it, and more will be getting it throughout the course of this year,” promised the education minister.