The Grade Four Literacy and Numeracy tests have been rescheduled to June 18.

The tests were postponed as a result of a clash between the grade-four assessment and the by-election scheduled for the North East St Catherine constituency.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced last Friday that the date for the by-election in the constituency would be June 16, which happened to be the date set for the grade-four assessment.

The seat was declared vacant in the Supreme Court on Thursday. Gregory Mair won the September 2007 general election by 959 votes over Phyllis Mitchell. However, Mitchell entered an election petition claiming Mair was a Venezuelan citizen and, therefore, not eligible to sit in the House of Representatives under the Constitution.

New chairman of Universal Access Fund

Dr Andre Foote, a Kingston-based dentist, has been appointed chairman of the Universal Access Fund.

This was confirmed yesterday by Information Minister Daryl Vaz.

Foote replaces Dr Herbert Thompson, president of the Northern Caribbean University, who served in the position for some three years.

Foote is a graduate of Howard University College of Dentistry in Washington, DC, United States, and has been a practising dentist for more than 20 years.

The Universal Access Fund is a government entity that collects a levy on incoming international calls to Jamaica. The revenue earned from the charges, which stood at $1.4 billion in July 2006, should go towards financing the implementation of the national e-learning project, which is designed to enhance the education process through the use of information technology.