KINGSTON, Jamaica – The Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) is being urged to deepen its collaboration with schools to ensure that commemorative events, such as those honouring the national heroes are not isolated from academic grounding.

Custos of Manchester, Garfield Green, in making the call, said these events should become embedded in the academic and civic lives of young people at all levels of the education system “so that they know why our heroes mattered”.

He said that the stories about the values and sacrifices of the country’s heroes should serve to inspire the next generation.

“Our children should not only know about our heroes but they must also be called to honour them and to walk in their footsteps,” he said.

These commemorative events, he noted further, should not only provide opportunities to engage with history and culture but “to reignite civic pride among our youth”.

Green was addressing a ceremony organised by the JCDC to mark the 132nd anniversary of the birth of National Hero Norman Washington Manley held recently at his birthplace in Roxborough, Manchester.

Describing the national hero as a “Jamaican of exceptional purpose and resolve”, the Custos said his life’s work laid the cornerstone of modern Jamaica.

He noted that Norman Manley served with dignity and integrity, upholding the principles of democracy and a society rooted in justice.

“As a statesman, a scholar, a soldier and an advocate, Norman Manley did not just lead with vision; he lived a life of service shaped by the conviction that all Jamaicans deserve dignity and opportunity.  His efforts in championing universal suffrage and siding with the working class during the pivotal labour movement of 1938 showed profound empathy and courage.  He did not simply talk reform, he acted on it,” Custos Green said.

Norman Manley was born on July 4, 1893 and died on September 2, 1969.

A Rhodes Scholar, he studied law at Oxford University. He fought in the First World War in the Royal Field Artillery and later returned to Jamaica to serve as a barrister.

He served as premier from 1959 to 1962, and led the demand for universal adult suffrage, which was implemented in 1944.

–       JIS