Henry urges Gov’t to energise STEM drive
Published:Tuesday | November 8, 2022 | 12:08 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
The Government is being challenged to ramp up its drive to expand science, technology, engineering. and mathematics (STEM) education as the country’s workforce now requires persons with those skill sets to advance along a path of growth.
The call has come from Gloria Henry, vice-president of business processing outsourcing and logistics at the Port Authority of Jamaica, who was a panellist at the Invest MoBay Forum (Montego Bay Expo) and public discussion hosted by the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry last Friday.
“I want to issue a charge to the Government,” Henry said as she addressed the theme ‘Creating Opportunities for Growth and Development’. “ Yes, I know there is a skills gap challenge right now, but one of the things that we need to do is stop talking about focusing on STEM and really make STEM happen.”
Noting that Jamaica was missing out on opportunities in the technical field, she argued that the process of implementing STEM education began with establishing STEM laboratories at the primary level in the education sector to allow students to “grow, hone and develop, and ... shape a mindset towards technical skills”.
In exposing the need for training Jamaican students in the area of science, Henry pointed to the migration of teachers and nurses to take up lucrative jobs, mainly in North America and Europe, and the fact that a large pool of tradesmen have also left for the Cayman Islands.
Further, she told entrepreneurs that they should look for opportunities in the field of science but stressed that the Government should also put in supporting infrastructure for employers and graduates with technical skills to diversify the economy and increase the island’s gross domestic product through high-end services.
Citing the recent establishment of a STEM academy in Falmouth, Trelawny, aimed at boosting performance for gifted students with an affinity for those subject areas, Henry said that the Government can roll out STEM education through public-private partnerships.
“The Government doesn’t have to do it alone because I saw where a 26-year-old teacher started a STEM lab in Falmouth, so there is an opportunity as well for private,” observed Henry.
She also believes that the HEART/NSTA Trust has the financial resources to provide funding for private investors to build training institutions.
The Government plans to build six STEM schools across the island at an overall cost of US$133 million. An institution for the arts will also be constructed. On October 25, a ceremony was hosted in Dunbeholden, St Catherine, to earmark land for the construction of the first school, which will fall in the Greater Bernard Lodge Development Area.