MONTEITH Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter
THE GOVERNMENT plans to increase by five, the number of days students spend in school each year, according to Senator Noel Monteith, State Minister in the Ministry of Education and Youth.
"We are proposing an increase of five days in the revision of the Education Code, which is currently being undertaken," Senator Monteith told The Gleaner yesterday.
With this revision, students will spend 195 days in school each year.
Senator Monteith's disclosure comes less than a week after Robert Gregory, president of tourism and trade lobby, Jamaica Trade and Invest, advocated for an extension in the amount of time students spend in the local primary and secondary school system.
Addressing the launch of Educational Consulting Services (ECS) Limited, at Alhambra Inn hotel in St. Andrew, on Thursday, Gregory said this was necessary for the local education system to gain what he called the competitive advantage.
The president said students currently spend a total of four and a half to five hours daily for about 11 years at the primary and secondary levels.
"Compare this to countries like Austria, Japan and Switzerland, where they have 220-225 eight-hour (school) days, and 12 years of schooling from primary to secondary," Gregory said.
But Senator Monteith said the increase in the number of years that students spend in school was among the recommendations made by the Task Force Report on Education. According to him, space permitting, most schools will have a grade 12 in the near future.
With the use of information communication technologies, ECS, the first of its kind to be established in Jamaica, will specialise in curriculum design and development.
It will also focus on leadership and professional development, counsellor education, institutional management, teacher education, and the placement of personnel and students.
The principals of ECS comprise a team of educators who have served in the Jamaican education system for many years at the highest levels.
Director of ECS, Dr. Deloris Brissett, said given the developments in education in Jamaica and the Caribbean, there is need for experienced educators to offer themselves to participate actively in educational and national transformation processes.
