Modernizing Jamaica’s education system

PORTMORE, March 25 – The Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth, and Information, in collaboration with the United Nations, launched the ‘Empowering Jamaica’s Future: SDG Joint Programme on Digital Transformation for Education’ project today at Cumberland High School in Portmore, St. Catherine. This three-year initiative aims to help modernise the Jamaican education system through digital innovation systems and will impact over 450,000 students nationwide.

The over $3.7Million USD joint programme will leverage technology to ensure inclusive and accessible education, particularly for Jamaica’s most vulnerable students. 

The programme will augment existing efforts to strengthen several entry points of the education system. It will bolster education data management through the digitisation of administrative processes in schools and tracking nutrition support through the digitisation of the National School Feeding Programme via an Education Management Information System (EMIS). This will further enhance the capacity of schools and the government to make informed decisions, including matters related to resource allocation and other student support strategies linked to centralised attendance tracking. 

In her keynote address, Minister of Education, Skills, Youth, and Information, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon stated, “We are working hard to enhance and transform how we operate in the education sector for the betterment of our students and teachers. This joint project takes us one step further toward ensuring equal access to quality education for every Jamaican child. In addition to fostering resilience and equipping educators and children to thrive in a rapidly changing digital environment, integrating this type of technology into our schools improves our capacity to monitor the uptake of critical support services, such as our school nutrition programmes to ensure that resources reach the students who need them most. The systems we are putting in place will provide real-time data and the necessary tools to make even more informed decisions about how best to support our schools.”

Dennis Zulu, the United Nations Resident Coordinator, remarked, “This programme is a testament to our shared commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. It underscores the critical role of digital innovation in accelerating educational equity and national development.”

The programme is supported by key implementing partners, including the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Food Programme (WFP), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The Programme is made possible by the Joint SDG Fund – an SDG-accelerator funding mechanism. The digital transformation portfolio is financed by the European Union with additional funding from the Kingdom of Spain. 

While the Joint Programme made its official launch today, it is already piloting critical initiatives such as the Educational Management Information System (EMIS) in selected schools.

More about the Joint SDG Fund: https://jointsdgfund.org/publication/digital-transformation-education-jamaica