MONTEGO BAY, St James — Member of Parliament (MP) for East Central St James Edmund Bartlett has launched a $3-million grant programme for 30 educators across the 14 schools in his constituency.

Bartlett provided details of the programme during a Teachers’ Day luncheon he hosted at the Montego Bay Convention Centre on Wednesday, as he kicked off celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of his education initiative.

The MP revealed that the grants, which will be shared equally among the educators, form part of a broader effort to recognise and support the contribution of teachers in the constituency.

“Thirty teachers will be awarded grants of $100,000 each to do a subject of their choice in specialisation in any institution of tertiary learning in Jamaica,” disclosed Bartlett.

“In the last 30 years, we have been awarding scholarships and giving support for educational institutions in all 14 schools in the constituency,” he added.

He was, however, tight-lipped about plans for his annual Primary Exit Profile (PEP) awards, and the Tertiary Scholarship Programme scholarships that are usually held in August.

“When we come to the PEP students in the first week of July, we will tell them what their story is. And then when we come to the university ones in August, we will tell them what their story is. But you know that we have support, and I’m so proud of the many teachers who have graduated out of the East Central St James education programme,” Bartlett said.

He lauded the educators — whom he described as “the technology that transforms children into nations” — for their sterling contribution during the COVID-19 pandemic, and challenged them to once again apply their expertise in the country’s post-Hurricane Melissa recovery efforts.

“The Melissa recovery programme is going to rest squarely on you, the teachers who have to teach. We saw what you did in COVID. We saw how you were the first real respondent in COVID; that some of you walk with the teaching lesson when there was no electricity for Internet connection. But you walked to the children’s homes with the lessons. And we saw in COVID how you risked yourselves,” said Bartlett, who is also Jamaica’s minister of tourism.

“We also saw how you learned fast in COVID, and how quickly you were able to become experts in artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) and all these cognitive systems that came about to help us to transmit knowledge and information to the children. You became instant experts in areas that you knew nothing about. It is that kind of innovativeness and dexterity that we are going to be calling on [from] you in this post-Melissa period to exhibit. Because we have to build back…sorry, we have to build forward. We have to build better. We have to be more resilient, and all our children now have to be brought into that whole process of development and reimagining,” he added.

Bartlett underscored the importance of educators’ role in reimagining Jamaican culture, rescuing it from current perceptions that endanger the country’s tourism product.

“The culture which defines us today as being crass and crude, uncaring and disrespectful of others. The culture that makes people say that we don’t want to come to Jamaica because you are too violent. That’s a tough one, isn’t it? But guess whose shoulder the weight of it is on? The teachers. Because it is you who have to transmit knowledge and information that has to be converted now into action and to change behavioural patterns and to cause a better relationship to obtain between people, so that we avoid negative behaviour patterns,” he said.

“The future of the stability of Jamaica, the future of law and order in Jamaica rests again with our education system and our teachers,” the MP added.

Newly named chairman of the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) Ryan Parkes added his voice to the call as he urged teachers to help shape a new niche in education, one centred on the warmth, behaviour and training of its people.

Parkes argued that Jamaica must look beyond its traditional tourism appeal of “sun, sand and sea” and instead build a globally competitive brand around the quality of its human capital.

“Our minister [of tourism] is currently leading the charge… to reimagine our tourism product in perhaps what is now dubbed Tourism 3.0,” Parkes said.

“This is a very timely move, because when you look at our tourism product today, the possibilities and opportunities there [are] to reshape that tourism product and the role that you will play in driving that, there [has been] no better time to do that, until now,” he added.

St James East Central Member of Parliament Edmund Bartlett greets two educators during a Teachers’ Day luncheon he hosted at the Montego Bay Convention Centre on Wednesday. (Photo: Horace Hines)