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Western Bureau: School administrators in the 45 high schools across the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information’s Region One are being urged to avoid the practice of preventing students whose abilities they doubt from sitting external examinations. In recent years, school authorities have been accused of blocking students deemed weak from sitting external examinations as a way of protecting their institutions’ image and boosting pass rates.
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As Steve Mitchell fought back tears inside the National Arena on Sunday, he knew he was witnessing a once-in-a-lifetime moment. The 50-year-old had just collected his master’s degree with Distinction and was preparing to watch his 21-year-old twin sons receive their associate degrees, completing a graduation day the family never saw coming.
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Graduates turning the page at Edith Dalton James High School, an institution known for “working with the lowest performing students from PEP”, as acknowledged by principal Dr Orlando Worges, are contending that retention at the primary level should not readily replace the intervention structure operating across the island’s secondary schools. “They shouldn’t be kept back,” said 19-year-old Justin Wallace, who graduated in 2024 as deputy head boy while establishing, in grade 11, the Male Empowerment Association to promote positive masculinity.
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WESTERN BUREAU: Merle Williams, the maternal grandmother who raised 10-year-old Shani Coke from birth, yesterday recounted the agonising hours spent searching for the child after sending her to a nearby shop on Tuesday afternoon. At the same time, Williams’ daughter, Akeem Williams, was overcome with grief and broke down in tears during an interview, unable to speak about the loss of her daughter. “I sent her to the shop about 3:30,” her grandmother recalled. “When four o’clock came and she never come back, me say, ‘No man, something wrong.’”
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A senior Jamaican military officer embedded with a United States (US)-based international counter-narcotics task force is facing a criminal charge after being arrested with a person under the age of 18 inside a vehicle, according to his attorney and online arrest records. Captain Raymond A. McLeod, 38, was arrested by the Key West Police Department in Florida on July 4.
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Prioritising intervention is pivotal to the learning trajectory and journey at Edith Dalton James High School as it seeks to improve academic outcomes. “We prioritise interventions that address literacy and numeracy gaps, as well as the confidence and mindset barriers that hinder performance,” explained principal Dr Orlando Worges.
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Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) Dr Rocky Meade has offered an explanation for why the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) spent only two per cent of the $1.44 billion in cash donations received to assist victims of Hurricane Melissa more than six months after the Category 5 storm devastated the western belt of the country.
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Rocky Meade, permanent secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, yesterday said the balance of unspent donated funds for hurricane victims, flagged in an auditor general’s report in May, is now being used to build house foundations and provide utilities for modular housing units to be given to people whose homes were destroyed by Hurricane Melissa last October. During a meeting of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) at Gordon House yesterday, Meade said 1,200 modular units were already in the country, while the Government was seeking to acquire another 1,300.
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Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Delroy Chuck, believes the new Mediation Act and the first comprehensive national policy on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) will be game changers in how community dispute resolutions are handled, and should produce further reductions in crime.
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Director General at the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), Commander Alvin Gayle, says 507 roofs that were impacted by Hurricane Melissa have been repaired under Phase I of the Government-led roofs repair programme.