ONE-MINUTE READS ... News across Jamaica

PEP results to be released Friday

Results of the Grade Six Primary Exit Profile (PEP) examination will be released on Friday.

Education Minister Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon said the results will be made available to schools at 11 a.m., and then to parents at 1 p.m.

"On Friday, I expect to see some very happy children and parents across Jamaica. The wait is over," Morris Dixon said.

More than 30,000 students sat PEP in grade six. Morris Dixon said that about a third of grade-six parents have signed up to get the results online.

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Amended Praedial Larceny Act passed

The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed amendments to the Praedial Larceny Act, aimed at combating the theft of agricultural produce, livestock and fish.

Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Floyd Green, who piloted the legislation, said the objective of the amendments is to improve deterrence and reinforce the legal framework by increasing the penalty.

"Our farmers have for long lobbied for this because, oftentimes, when there are going to be sentencings in these matters, our farmers want to have a say to be able to indicate the sort of damage that has been brought to bear on them," Green said.

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MP laments teacher migration 'disaster'

St Mary Central Member of Parliament, Dr Morais Guy, has characterised Jamaica's teacher migration issue as a "policy-made disaster".

Guy, speaking in the Sectoral Debate in Parliament on Tuesday, said the migration of the country's educators has adversely impacted the nation.

"While the government fiddles, schools are left scrambling to import teachers from Ghana, without cultural orientation, without a clear strategy, and mere days before the school term," Guy said.

The opposition lawmaker noted that only 18 per cent of students passed five or more CSEC subjects, including mathematics and English, last year.

"That means 82 per cent are not academically equipped to access quality jobs, tertiary education, or meaningful advancement in life. That is the cost of teacher migration. That is the cost of policy neglect," Guy said.

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Travelling Jamaicans urged to get yellow fever vaccine

Jamaicans planning to visit countries where yellow fever is endemic are urged to get vaccinated before travelling.

This advice comes from Acting Senior Medical Officer of Health for Kingston and St Andrew, Dr Susan Strachan-Johnson, following an eightfold increase in yellow fever cases across the Americas during the first five months of 2025. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) issued a rapid risk assessment on May 23, reporting 221 confirmed cases of yellow fever across multiple countries, including 89 deaths. Yellow fever is endemic to 44 countries, primarily in Africa and South America, including Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.

Speaking to reporters during a tour of the Slipe Pen Road Comprehensive Health Centre in Kingston recently, Strachan-Johnson informed that while yellow fever is not endemic to Jamaica, the country has the vector that transmits the disease.Yellow fever is transmitted through the bite of an infective Aedes aegypti mosquito, which acquires the virus by feeding on an infected human.

She indicated that the vaccine is offered at the Slipe Pen Road Comprehensive Health Centre on Tuesdays and Thursdays at a subsidised cost of $1,500. Persons in western Jamaica can access the vaccine at the Montego Bay Type V Clinic in St James.