Acknowledging that there are significant challenges in the education system today due to the effects of COVID-19, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness says many of the country’s students are not learning at the level, pace and stage at which they would be, were they in the usual face-to-face learning modality.

Holness said the Government was concerned that this cohort of grade-6 students would be behind as they transition to high school and declared that his Administration would not allow that to affect the remainder of their education cycle.

“Whatever we have to do to catch up on what you have lost and to ensure that you have the foundation skills to advance to higher learning, the Government is committed to ensuring that this is done,”the prime minister told a gathering of students and parents at the Calabar Infant, Primary and Junior High School in Central Kingston on Friday (May 14).

“I want to give you that assurance as children and I want to give that assurance to your parents. It is something that is near and dear to my heart and I am going to ensure that you are not adversely affected because of the measures that we have had to put in place to control the pandemic.”

Holness also said the Government was developing a new framework for broadband internet access across the length and breadth of Jamaica to ensure that every Jamaican household can access broadband internet, whether through wired service or wireless service.

INTERNET PENETRATION PROGRAMME PLANNING FAR ADVANCED

He said the planning was far advanced and the programme itself should be at an advanced stage of completion within two years.

The prime minister, in speaking directly to the students, said the new world in which they will be living is a digital one that requires a highway to carry information. That highway, he said, is the internet and the devices are the vehicles.

Holness said the Government would ensure that every Jamaican has that access through the provision of internet straight to their homes.