Western Jamaica to get free day-care facilities

The Government will be establishing approximately 24 free day-care centres in the 12 political constituencies in western Jamaica, which will be rebranded as brain builder facilities.

Eastern Hanover will be the first constituency in the west to get the facility, which is expected to be opened for the 2018-2019 school year.

According to State Minister for Education, Youth and Information Floyd Green, a total of 126 state-run day-care centres will be placed across Jamaica with an aim of charting a new course in early-childhood development.

"We are doing 126 across Jamaica, two per constituency, where parents, once your child reaches six months, you can send that child to the day-care centre free of cost," said Green.

"The day cares will have persons who are trained in stimulating the minds of the children so that when they go out to our basic schools they are ready to learn; because if we don't play it right from the start, we will play catch up every step of the way," he added.

Green who made the announcement in his keynote address at the South St James GSAT Awards Ceremony 2018 at the Springfield Baptist Church recently, noted that such investments are necessary to make education more accessible and attainable to every child.

"That is why we have gone as bit further to put in place specialised math teachers for primary schools, because we recognised that we have a problem with math for a long time," Green explained.

The state minister further stated that more than over $2 billion has gone into the school-feeding programme to feed hungry students, particularly those on the PATH programme, for the full five days per week.