Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter

Andrew Holness, minister of education, makes his contribution to the 2008-2009 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives yesterday. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

Education Minister Andrew Holness is to take a draft policy on compulsory education to Cabinet shortly, paving the way for all Jamaicans to be attached to an approved educational institution up to age 18 years old.

Speaking during his contribution to the 2008-2009 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives yesterday, Holness said the policy would add two years to secondary schools to create a 'senior school'.

Holness told the House that students who did not matriculate to sixth form or community colleges would be required to continue on to senior school.

"At 16, our young people are out of school and many find it difficult to transition into the society ... and they are at risk of entering into a life of crime and deviant behaviour," Holness told the House.

Continued academic development

The curriculum for the senior school, the education minister said, would be based on a knowledge, skills and attitude model. This means that students would get the opportunity to continue their academic development, with the curriculum being technical and vocational oriented.

A large component of the programme, Holness said, would be based on apprenticeship and on-the-job training. National service would also be a key component.

Holness said students would graduate with at least Level Two of the HEART Trust NTA National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) certification at the end of the programme.

He also said the NVQ2 qualification could then be articulated through levels three, four and five. Holness said, at the NVQ, the holder would have qualifications equivalent to a first degree.

Holness said there were no plans to build an entirely new infrastructure to facilitate the senior school. He said the model being pursued could be described as a mixture of the school-to-lab and fixed-lab models.

As it relates to school-to-lab, each school in a cluster is equipped with a particular lab and students move to those labs with their cluster as the practicum requires.

In some cases, Holness said, fixed master labs would be created, where schools in a particular cluster had no suitable facilities to host the lab.

petrina.francis@gleanerjm.com