AS THE imperative of reforming Jamaica's educational system becomes increasingly urgent, more and more large corporations and financial institutions are getting the message and targeting this area for badly needed support. National Commercial Bank (NCB) and Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) are two recent examples of financial institutions making significant contributions to solving some of our problems in education.
NCB has announced that it is forming a specialised university offering degree training in accounting and other disciplines essential to the banking industry. The programme is well under way, headed by Mrs. Pamela Harrison, a seasoned educationalist and retired Principal of Wolmer's Girls School.
Both BNS and NCB have announced exceptional growth in bottom line profits and BNS is to make $14 million available over the three years to two worthy beneficiaries, the Hugh Shearer Foundation and the Point Hill Diagnostic Reading Centre. BNS, through its ScotiaBank Foundation, has already contributed some $218 million to worthy causes over the seven years that it has been in existence.
The BNS contribution to the recently established Hugh Shearer Foundation will help to fund postgraduate scholarships in trade union studies, provide training in the care of the elderly and improve basic school education in rural Jamaica. In making this grant, BNS is also indirectly honouring the life and career of the Most Honourable Hugh Lawson Shearer, a past Jamaican Prime Minister whose contributions to Jamaica's national advancement has, in our view, never been fully appreciated.
Mr. Shearer's humanity and warm sense of personal relationships allowed him to steer the ship of State for just under five years, after which, with characteristic humility, he was quite content to hand over the reins of governance to his successor.
The other organisation to benefit from BNS funding is the Point Hill Diagnostic Centre in St. Catherine which will use some of the money to recruit a specialist education teacher who will spearhead a drive to improve literacy levels for students in the Point Hill community.
Raising literacy standards by bridging the gap between patois and standard English in early childhood education is an urgent priority for better efficiency in the Jamaican work force as we face the challenges of a global economy.
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