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June 2017
| VOICES Bi-Monthly Magazine of the University of Technology, Jamaica
T
he thrust to reduce vulnerability and improve infrastructural resiliency
in public schools across Jamaica has received a boost with the signing
of a contract among partners, University of Technology, Jamaica,
the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, the World Bank and the
National Education Trust (NET) for the implementation of the Jamaica Safe
Schools Project: School Inspection Programme (JSSP).
The contract for the implementation of the JSSP was signed on Monday,
May 1, 2017 at UTech, Jamaica’s Papine campus.
The JSSP is part of a larger National Education Sector Development Plan
to support the Government of Jamaica in “mainstreaming disaster risk
management in the regulation, planning, designing, construction and
management of school infrastructure.”
Under the JSSP project, 971 public infant, primary and secondary
schools across Jamaica will be inspected to assess the risk, structural
and functional needs. These assessments will enable the Government of
Jamaica to prioritize investments plans to build infrastructure resilience in
these schools.
Project Implementation
The project will commence with a pilot involving the inspection of fifty (50)
schools - forty-six (46) in Kingston and four (4) schools in St. Andrew. The
information provided from the data collected from the pilot schools will be
used to establish a digital information template which will inform the data
collection process from the remaining schools.
The project should be completed within approximately two years ending
by mid-2018 with two major outputs – the establishment of a school
infrastructure baseline and database which will form a master database
and a final report providing an analysis of the data. Students from the
University’s Faculty of The Built Environment and the Faculty of Engineering
and Computing are executing this aspect of the project.
UTech, Jamaica Signs Contract with Ministry of Education
and the World Bank for Jamaica Safe Schools Project
Partners in the Jamaica Safe Schools Project: School Inspection Programme affix their signatures to the contract documents at a special signing ceremony held on
Monday, May 1, 2017 at the University of Technology, Jamaica’s (UTech, Jamaica) Papine campus. Seated from left are Ms. Marcia Phillips Dawkins, Managing Director,
National Education Trust (NET), Dr. Roland Bradshaw, Project Manager, World Bank, Prof. Stephen Vasciannie, CD, President, UTech, Jamaica, Hon. Floyd Green, Minister
of State, Ministry of Education, Youth and Information and Prof. Nilza Aples, Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Computing, UTech, Jamaica. Standing are Associate Prof.
Garfield Young, Dean, Faculty of The Built Environment, UTech, Jamaica and Miss Latoya Harris, Director, Donor and Partnership Management, NET.