JIS: The Government will spend approximately $30 million to renovate infant schools and create infant departments in primary schools during the 2018/19 fiscal year.

 

Details of the projects, to be spearheaded by the National Education Trust (NET), are outlined in the 2018/19 Estimates of Expenditure, which were tabled in the House of Representatives on Thursday (February 15).

 

NET, which falls under the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, is the government entity that mobilises financial and quality resources for schools in Jamaica.

 

Director, Donor and Partnership Management at NET, Latoya Harris, said her organisation is ready to serve the communities that will benefit from these projects.

 

“We welcome this initiative, and we’re looking forward to providing more classrooms for our infants across Jamaica,” Ms. Harris told JIS News.

 

She said with the expansion of government-based infant schools islandwide, more youngsters, especially in rural areas, will be reached and more institutions will be able to meet the Early Childhood Commission’s Standards.

 

NET will also spearhead a Sanitary Block Project, the Education Transformation Programme, the Solar Systems Project in Schools and the establishment of diagnostic centres in colleges islandwide during the 2018/19 fiscal year.

 

CAPTION: Students of the St. Richard’s Early Childhood Education Centre perform a piece during the school expansion blessing and dedication ceremony, held at the school in Kingston. The school has been expanded through a $13.2-million donation made by the Culture, Health, Arts, Sport and Education (CHASE) Fund.