MONTEGO BAY, St James — Member of Parliament for St James East Central Edmund Bartlett has announced that some $13 million will be spent on his educational programme in his constituency this year.

He was speaking on Friday at the East Central St James Scholarship and Welfare Fund annual awards function, held at Iberostar Hotel for 79 tertiary-level students who received scholarships and grants amounting to over $8 million.

That came on the heels of scholarship awards to 130 students in his constituency who amassed over 80 per cent in their Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examinations.

“This year, having now completed today [Friday] our school tuition education programme, we will be spending $13 millon on education for East Central St James,” revealed Bartlett who is also the minister of tourism.

“We are supported, of course, by CDF [Constituency Development Fund]. Plus, we do very special fund-raising support from our private sector partners to enable these contributions to be had so that our students can be secured. I am excited about it and this is why I am in politics for 47 years,” he added.

Guest speaker at the ceremony, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Senator Matthew Samuda noted that Bartlett is the parliamentarian who spends the majority of his CDF on education.

“I can tell you — and I hope the citizens of East Central St James realise, Mr Bartlett — that the greatest investment in education from the CDF, which the minister has total discretion of, comes from Minister Bartlett in Jamaica, and I think that should be acknowledged and be congratulated,” Samuda stated.

He added that Bartlett’s choice of investing in education is a reflection of the long-term thinking of the Andrew Holness-led Government.

“A Government and a politician is known by the decision that he makes; it is not always popular, and it is not always that there are not easier, short-term decisions before you.

“There are many things that this Government has decided to spend on that will bring long-term benefits. There are many programmes that are in place that we could be very simplistic with: We could be doing a whole lot of tinkering with water, some patches here and there instead of resurfacing, we could be doing little tinkering in education, or tinkering in health care, or tinkering in the capacity to support this rapid growth in tourism. But, we have made decisions that I think mirror the philosophy that has certainly been represented by Minister Bartlett — and under this Government, led by Andrew Holness, there is a long-term thinking,” Samuda said.

Bartlett noted that in his nearly five decades in representational politics he is most proud of his contribution to education.

“This is the 47th year of experience in nation building and, of that 47 years, 43 of them have been dedicated to providing educational opportunities for the children of the two constituencies that I have represented in that period — Eastern St Andrew and now East Central St James,” he said.

“There is nothing that has given me greater pride — not the 21 years that I have been a minister in every JLP Administration since 1980, and because I am also the longest-serving Member of Parliament in the history of St James East Central — but because more lives have been enriched. More people with little promise or no promise, and even less resource, have had a chance to not only be promising but fulfill their promise,” he added.