Jamaica: Education Minister Proposes Universal State Funded Secondary Education

Minister of Education, Andrew Holness, has suggested that the right to state-funded pre-primary and primary education for Jamaican children, included in the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms Bill, should be extended to secondary education. He added that the right to publicly funded pre-primary and primary education will not be good enough to equip the country's human resource with the skills, create a knowledge-based society that is fully productive and creative.

Jamaica's immediate challenge in meeting the need for universal secondary education, is to build enough school spaces to accommodate those students who should be in high school but are either in all-age or junior high schools.