good afternoon I'm Giovanni Dennis with the midday news a special welcome if you're joining us online
at onespotmedia.com the own your own device program by the Ministry of Education has been
halted speaking in parliament Wednesday education minister Faval Williams says this was necessary
to carry out an assessment and address issues identified Oshane Masters reports the own your
own device program was intended to provide non-path students the ability to receive a
tablet for online classes that program however has been temporarily suspended education minister
Faval Williams pointed to issues but did not expound when she addressed parliament Wednesday
only stating that it is being reviewed 720 million dollars had been set aside for the tablets
so far over 226 million has been used as of Monday May 17 we have received 34 058 applications
on our electronic system this amount represents 95 percent of the target
and shows the need throughout our country to provide devices for students we have issued
approximately 24 000 vouchers to date and as of monday may 17 approximately 13
337 parents or guardians have redeemed their vouchers currently persons who
apply for the program have to undergo a rigorous verification process by the tax administration of
jamaica taj for income verification and the national student registration system nsrs
this is essential as only persons who are receiving between 500 000 five million dollars
annually are eligible to receive assistance in terms of application states based on the final
verification by way of the scoring rubric tax administration of jamaica taj income verification
and national student registration system 24 437 applicants have
been approved and issued vouchers 5287 applications did not meet the criteria
we are processing 1614 applicants right now and are there they're being issued with vouchers
1836 applications are under review due to the income discrepancies
and 34 applicants have been placed for consideration based on the scoring rubric
mrs williams noted that the majority of the applications for assistance
were meetings in katherine zindan kingston and santandro o'shea masters dvj news
give education the attention it deserves thus the charge from opposition spokesperson on education
dr angela brown burke she says for far too long the sector has been put on the back
burner for other developmental projects she was making her contribution to the sectoral debate
the opposition spokesperson on education says the education sector could be in crisis mode
if it doesn't get the attention needed speaking in parliament last evening dr angela brown burke
accused the angel homeless-led government of placing more focus on infrastructure developments
and tourism she notes that while those are important if the labor force is not educated
then the rewards in those sectors will not have the desired outcome she is therefore calling for
a revision of policies to attract investments within education for the impact that jamaica
is hoping to see that we're all hoping to see our education system would need to be repurposed and
reoriented as envisioned in dr ray davis's 2004 task force on educational reform jamaica report
turning to the impact of covert 19 on the education sector dr brown burke says the
virus has once again exacerbated the split between the rich and poor in the society
if we are to be honest to ourselves and to those who have elected us to serve then we have to
acknowledge that we have seen a tardy partial and inadequate response from the government
she argues that the education ministry has failed to engage stakeholders
in a strategic targeted response and believes not enough has been done to ensure students own and
devices for online classes dr brown burke further contends that little to no focus has been provided
for the early childhood sector with response or lack thereof from the government seems to have
basically abandoned the many years of partnership with early childhood and basic school operators
who have worked to prepare our children from the least able and undeserved underserved
families with the basic skills necessary to transition to the next phase of education
at the same time many parents with children and with children with disabilities are at a loss
she was also critical of the way in which the education ministry went about finalizing plans
for the primary exit profile pep exams and the caribbean secondary examination council cxe exams
there seems to be a refusal to see our private institutions as important strategic partners
in education i think our children deserve better or shane masters tvg news 387
billion dollars wasted on social intervention programs that's according to a new report
from the caribbean policy research institute capri which says the money spent over a decade
has seen no significant reduction in violence indicators hermann green reports the capra report
titled testing testing challenges to measuring social programs for at-risk youth looked at 10
social programs implemented between fiscal years 2007 2008 and 2017-2018 the report attributed
the failures to weaknesses in monitoring and evaluation during an online forum on tuesday
capra's lead researcher joanna callan explained that the findings are nothing new as past reports
have highlighted them but there is one repeating challenge transparency and accountability the
lack of transparency for stalls public engagement with and the understanding of the interventions
people have the right to know what programs are around them that affects them whether directly
or indirectly lack of transparency can equate to lack of accountability taxpayers should know how
their tax dollars are being used in the name of social change programs deputy prime minister and
national security minister dr horace chang acknowledged most of the findings indicating
that he welcomes more accountability i think when i said this first i got battered by a lot of
public interests that i was criticizing programs the fact is the programs have done some individual
good but they have not done much in changing things and the challenges don't remain the same
and therefore we have to identify the programs we have to do programs in a way that will have
impact on the community he's also calling for more accountability for program expenditures
especially to ministers you know you cannot have infant schools primary school secondary school
when you look at social work a high school an area with turning on no cxt no graduate nobody can work
yet they have on the staff members a principal a huge physical infrastructure that's where we
have to go and i said the government's commitment is to ensure that the government expenditure is
spent efficiently and well herman green tvj news despite calls to put off an all island tax strike
some taxi operators went ahead in saint mary several passengers were left stranded this
morning as tax operators in the parish withdrew their services they are protesting against
the lack of response from the government about persistent cause for a fair increase
to ticket summer uniform john said ten thousand dollars are 10 billion
ten years of jail but ten thousand dollars are ten years they're so easy you're so easy
insurance fitness red lights of fitness two time a year a two insurance two hundred
hours in a year basically at a business in general so we're just our acting minister
prime minister du angel respect and food against my general managing director of the transporter
authority willard hilton has promised to meet with the taxi operators the road license provide
a certain direction for them to use to enter into the town of archeryos but when they go into the
township they do otherwise so they're operating contrary to the terms of the road license
as i've asked for them to have a meeting with me tomorrow morning so we can listen clearly
to what those other concerns are with a view to trying to see how best we can resolve it and if
it means having a conversation with the police then we may have to do that and it's now time
for a break here on the midday news but please stay with us we'll have much more when you return