PM names high-level Education Transformation Commission

Prime Minister Andrew Holness has named a 14-member high-level Commission on Education Transformation.

It will be responsible for conducting a comprehensive review and assessment of Jamaica’s education system including its structure and operations.

The commission will also recommend actions for change.

According to Holness, the Professor Orlando Patterson-chaired commission is expected to produce its report by March 2021.

The last major assessment of the education system was undertaken in 2004 by the Task Force on Educational Reform with Dr Rae Davis as chairman.

Speaking at Wednesday’s launch of the Education Transformation Commission Patterson said there was a learning crisis in Jamaica.

"We have succeeded in placing people in school but… what they are learning isn’t much to be desired."

Patterson, a Jamaican, is John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University in the United States.

He previously held faculty appointments at the University of the West Indies and the London School of Economics.

Members of the Commission:

• Professor Eleanor Brown, Professor of Law and International Affairs at Pennsylvania State University
   
• Professor Michael Taylor, Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology, University of the West Indies, Mona
   
• Professor Maureen Samms-Vaughan, Professor of Child Health, Child Development and Behaviour, University of the West Indies, Mona
   
• Professor Colin Gyles, Acting President of the University of Technology
   
• Dr Dana Morris-Dixon, Assistant General Manager, Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer at Jamaica National Group
   
• Erica Simmons, Executive Director of the Centre for Digital Innovation and Advanced Manufacturing at the Caribbean Maritime University
   
• Most Reverend Donald Reece, Archbishop Emeritus of Kingston and Chairman of the Ecumenical Education Committee
   
• Professor David Pennant, Professor of Development Finance, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of the West Indies, Mona
   
• Dr Jeffrey Hall, CEO, Jamaica Producers Group Limited
   
• Gordon Swaby, CEO, Edufocal Limited
   
• Dr Garth Anderson, Principal, Church Teachers’ College
   
• Esther Tyson, Former Principal, Ardenne High School
   
• Floretta Plummer, Former Principal, Naggo Head Primary School

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