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JET responds to claims about Schools’ Environment Programme

Published:Wednesday | June 20, 2018 | 4:22 PM
Students at a booth during the 20th annual SEP awards ceremony at the Spanish Court Hotel in St Andrew on June 19, 2018 - Contributed

The Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) is defending its stewardship of the Schools’ Environment Programme (SEP), Jamaica's longest running environmental education programme, and is dismissing claims of improper management.

This after Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) Chairman Danville Walker explained in a media interview yesterday that the agency decided to pull funding from the programme because it was not satisfied that it was getting value for money and wants to redirect the money to other initiatives.

Walker's comments came after JET CEO Suzanne Stanley revealed that the programme, which has been running for 20 years, could cease come September because the NCRA, which was the main sponsor since 2012, indicated that it will no longer provide financial support to SEP.

Stanley was speaking yesterday at 20th annual SEP awards ceremony where she made an appeal to the business community to support the environment programme so as to keep it alive.

In a statement today, JET expressed surprised at Walker's remarks stating that at no time did he or the agency raised concerns to the environment lobby group about the handling of SEP.

According to the organisation, it wrote letters to the NRCA and Walker seeking clarification of the February 2018 letter from the authority notifying the group of the withdrawal of SEP funding but it did not get a response.

JET insists that it has fulfilled all its contractual obligations to NRCA under the SEP project and that there has never been any indication from the authority that it was dissatisfied.


See Full Statement


The Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) is rejecting statements made by Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) Chairman Danville Walker in response to its announcement regarding the withdrawal of NRCA funds for the Schools’ Environment Programme (SEP).

The statement by Walker was carried in the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday, June 20. In his statement, Mr Walker indicated that the NRCA board was not happy with the job that JET was doing in terms of public education and felt that the money (for SEP) could be better used.

At no time was this position communicated to JET. In fact, JET sought clarification of the letter notifying us of NRCA’s withdrawal of SEP funding (attached) on several occasions, including by letter to Mr Walker on April 16, 2018 (also attached) – to which JET has received no response.

To date, JET has fulfilled all its contractual obligations to NRCA under the SEP project, including successful delivery of all SEP components (workshops, school supervision visits, educational materials, and awards) and has submitted all quarterly reports on the projects progress on time.

Each year since our partnership with NRCA began in 2012, representatives from the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), who administers the NRCA grant, or the NRCA has been present at the annual SEP awards ceremony (including NEPA CEO Peter Knight and Mr Walker in 2016), and the agency has publicly commended the programme. This year, Anthony McKenzie, Director of Environmental Management and Conservation Division at NEPA represented the NRCA at the SEP awards on June 18 and applauded JET and the SEP schools for their work.

There has never been any indication from NRCA or NEPA that they were dissatisfied with the job that JET was doing delivering SEP, which was reaffirmed by their continued funding of the project over the last six years.

In 2016 JET met with NEPA to discuss ways in which SEP could be expanded beyond its current reach for the same budget. Both parties agreed that NEPA would facilitate delivering SEP in more schools by engaging its staff to conduct school supervision visits in 12 schools in the 2016/7 academic year. NEPA did not meet all its obligations under that arrangement and the approach was scrapped in the 2017/8 school year.

SEP, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, is the longest-running environmental education programme of its kind in Jamaica. SEP’s professional development workshops have given hundreds of Jamaican teachers the opportunity to expand their knowledge of environmental issues.

The programme has inspired young environmental advocates and encouraged hundreds of successful environmental projects by schools in their local communities. SEP has been propelled by enthusiastic principal and teacher support, parental and community involvement and the support of several longstanding public and private sector donors. The programme was implemented in 39 schools in the 2017/18 academic year.

JET calls for the NRCA to clarify its position on SEP and retract its statement regarding the project’s performance.

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