Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, says Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education remains a priority focus area for the Government in driving national development.
“We are investing. We have said we are going to be building six new STEM schools. Those schools will not be operating under the Education Act, as it presently is. We will develop a new scheme of management [to facilitate these],” Mr. Holness said.
He was addressing students, staff and parents during Jamaica College’s orientation session for first-year students on Monday’s (September 2) start of the 2024/25 academic year, at the institution’s Old Hope Road campus in St. Andrew.
Noting that STEM education is the way of the future, Prime Minister Holness said the Government is now putting financing in place to construct the six schools programmed for development.
“What we need to be providing to the market from the education system are students that are trained in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” he emphasised.
Noting that this is only possible through the development of quality human resources, Mr. Holness reiterated that, “Jamaica’s future, its economy, has always been and will continue to be even more so dependent on the quality of the human resources that we produce.”
“If Jamaica is to move from [being] a low-wage, low-productivity, low-growth economy into a high-wage, high-growth, high-productivity economy, investing in science, technology, engineering and mathematics is critical. We must be generating every year, to our market, to our industries, the skills needed to take up the jobs that will come in the next 20 and 30 years,” he underscored.
