Minister of Education Andrew Holness (left) speaks with Thalia Lyn (second right), CEO and managing director of Island Grill, during the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica's monthly Job Creation Awards breakfast at the Terra Nova Hotel in the Corporate Area yesterday. Lyn was a July winner of the award, along with Steven Sykes (right), director of operations, Continental Baking Company Limited, and Errol Dennis, managing director of Dentronix Limited. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

Minister of Education Andrew Holness is appealing to members of the private sector and the diaspora to invest in Jamaica by contributing to the infrastructure of schools.

Yesterday, an educator, based in the United States, agreed with Holness, saying members of the diaspora could sponsor children or contribute to school departments.

Colleen Hinds, founder of the Hinds Foundation for Social and Educational Reform, said this would quell the pressure on parents and schools, amid the rising cost of living and school auxiliary fees.

Major schools programme

Yesterday, Holness appealed to corporate Jamaica to invest in a major schools programme that would allow for the development of 45 secondary schools to relocate the 155,000 students who are currently educated on a shift basis, in addition to the maintenance of existing schools.

Speaking at the monthly Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica's Job Creation Awards ceremony, held at the Terra Nova Hotel in St Andrew, Holness said the project would cost nearly $40 billion.

Currently, of the $54 billion budget allocated to education annually, 90 per cent goes towards administration, including paying the 25,000 teachers in the education system.

Holness argued that developing the infrastructure would yield long-term benefits and increase the performance of both students and staff.

Better standard of education

Holness said he has learned that many Jamaicans living in the United Kingdom wished to send their children back home as they believed the standard of the education system here is better.

He, however, stressed that the school infrastructure required improvement.

Meanwhile, Hinds told The Gleaner yesterday that contributions from the diaspora could alleviate the economic pressures on schools and parents.

She said she was currently in the planning stages of developing a boarding school called the Jamaica leadership academy in St Catherine.

"By empowering the larger diaspora to sponsor a child, a subject or an activity, funds could be used to subsidise the cost of education for those qualified families who cannot meet the monetary demands of the school," she said.