Once ringfenced without portfolios in the Office of the Prime Minister, veteran politicians Karl Samuda and Mike Henry have been given a second wind with full appointments to the respective portfolios of education and labour. The endorsement by...
TWENTY-NINE-YEAR-OLD ALEC Martin, a Jamaican living in the United States, always desired to be his own boss. That hunger drove him to sink his teeth in the rough and tumble of entrepreneurship by learning from his dad, a dentist and businessman. “...
“IT’S A mixture of emotions. I’m nervous and I’m extremely excited,” said Ruth-Ann Findlay yesterday after returning to school three months after COVID-19 containment measures resulted in the suspension of physical classes. “Coming to school...
Black smoke billowed from cars set on fire and debris blocked the intersection of Waltham Park and Hagley Park roads in Kingston as residents of Cockburn Gardens protested the fatal shooting of 32-year-old Jermaine ‘Shawn‘ Ferguson yesterday...
IN NORMAL times, Zavia Cunningham guides her students through the structured Spanish curriculum with face-to-face encouragement. But since March 13, the Wolmer’s Boys’ School teacher has had to find innovative ways to execute effective remote...
A retired educator has launched a YouTube channel dedicated to storytelling, aiming to ignite a passion for reading in young children. Pop Story Gimme features stories narrated with a Caribbean flavour by Joyce Thompson, who hails from Darliston,...
CLASSROOMS CRAMMED with up to 40 students will be a rare sight at secondary schools across Jamaica come June 8. Visits to schools across the Corporate Area where preparations are under way to facilitate exam refreshers showed classrooms that would...
Near-four-decade veteran District Constable Morris Walker was scheduled to proceed on retirement on June 29 but won’t get an opportunity to bask in the fruits of his labour. It was a sombre mood at the Cross Roads Police Station in Kingston on...
School administrators and secondary-school students have criticised the decision to change exam dates, with the acting president of the Association of Principals and Vice Principals, Lynton Weir, expressing “serious concern” about performance...
Residents of Rum Lane in downtown Kingston have backed themselves to rise from the ashes of Wednesday’s fire that gutted several dwellings. But their rebound rests on how quickly they can get help in procuring building and roofing material to start...
COVID-19 has put many significant events on hold, but many couples have remained determined to tie the knot. The Registrar General’s Department (RGD) offers registry weddings at 10 locations islandwide and has been an ideal option for scores bound...
Systems glitches doomed yesterday's historic online vote for the student government at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, forcing a postponement to June 2. The decision was made late yesterday following consultation with the...
AS THEY refine the education ministry’s coronavirus protocols for the reopening of schools on June 8 for exam preparations, Jamaican administrators are in a race against time to overcome logistical and other challenges. The face-to-face classes are...
Parents and guardians preparing to return to worksites as COVID-19 restrictions ease next month are now mulling over another quandary: whether to risk sending their children to daycare. Others who have lost jobs or suffered steep pay cuts can’t...
AN ANALYSIS by the World Bank’s Education Global practice has shown that some Caribbean countries are off track to meet the global learning goals. “Even before the COVID pandemic, we were already faced with a very serious challenge in education,...
Jamaican children shielded in restrictive home environments from the coronavirus pandemic may be vulnerable to early-onset mental-health disorders, says Professor Maureen Samms-Vaughan. The displacement in school and family since Jamaica recorded...
THE GOVERNMENT is to announce the final decision on the sitting of the 2020 Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) by next Monday. In a virtual meeting held by the Overseas...
MAXINE REYES grew up in the community of Marley Hill in South Manchester with her great-grandmother. She has fond memories of climbing mango trees and walking to school barefooted but this little girl never imagined that she would one day serve in...
The Jamaican Government is still mulling over its options in the face of insistence by the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) that it will press ahead with external exams in July despite resistance by several regional states. Cabinet has not yet...
THE UNIVERSITY Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) has been finding ways to cope amid the COVID-19 crisis. In an interview on Tuesday, Chief Executive Officer Kevin Allen told The Gleaner that they have been using added technology to support their...
PRINTERS, LAPTOPS, projectors and monitors valued at $1.5 million were donated to the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities (JCPD) by the Universal Service Fund (USF) on Tuesday. The handover of equipment is part of a $50-million grant...
FOOD BILLS across Jamaica’s 50 children’s homes and places of safety have increased since schools shuttered on March 13 amid the local spread of COVID-19, forcing wards to be home full time. The Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA)...
Preliminary reports of child abuse to the National Children’s Registry in March fell by approximately 28 per cent compared to the previous month, signalling to welfare authorities that hundreds of children might be at greater risk of exploitation...
When Rolando Nooks’ father passed away three years ago, his sister was unable to travel for the funeral and made one request of him. Using his mobile phone, the Jamaican streamed the service live for his sibling to view. “I was leaning into this...
It was a double whammy of inconvenience for Sharon Carter, a vendor in Metcalfe Market, Annotto Bay. Carter, who lives in St Catherine, had just recently been relieved of the lockdown in the parish and is now being affected by the quarantine which...
