JPS Foundation powers CSEC electrical exams

Approximately 400 students from 30 high schools across the island are to benefit from sponsorship by the JPS Foundation.

The entity has donated more than $1.5 million to cover exam fees for students sitting the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Industrial Technology (Electrical) Exams in 2022.

JPS Foundation has been providing the CSEC exam grant since 2016. To date, it has contributed over $10 million to the programme.

Addressing a small gathering at the handover ceremony of the grant to the minister of education, youth and information, the foundation's deputy chairman, Ramsay McDonald, encouraged students to work hard and make the most of their opportunity.

"The JPS Foundation's commitment is to provide an opportunity for students, with our CSEC exam fee grant. It is up to you, the students, to make the very best of this opportunity. Even if this is not your ultimate field of study, we believe that your exposure to industrial technology at the CSEC level will open your eyes to the ever-expanding possibilities in a changing world," McDonald said.

For her part, Education Minister Fayval Williams thanked the JPS Foundation for its continued corporate outreach and expressed the importance of integrating skills-based learning in the Jamaican education system.

"This is in sync with the national education objective of making a skills-based course mandatory for all high school students," Williams said.

Tanjay Holmes, examinations officer for CSEC and Caribbean Vocational Qualifications at the Overseas Examination Commission, said that "The provision of fee grants is indeed giving light and power to the people".

"We charge the recipients to make the best use of this investment," he said.