Some schools to specialise in performing arts

Education, Youth and Information Minister Ruel Reid says one of the first five of 17 additional high schools which the Government plans to build will be designated a specialised institution for the performing arts.

Speaking recently at the Caribbean Broadcasting Union's 49th Annual General Assembly at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston, the minister said designation of the school is consistent with a recommendation emerging from the 36th CARICOM Heads of Government Summit in Barbados in July 2015.

This suggestion calls for the strengthening of member states' educational programmes in the arts and support services at all levels.

These, Senator Reid pointed out, include developing or boosting vocational and short-term professional training programmes, and piloting the establishment of a performing arts school in each territory, as part of the wider basis for a Caribbean creative economy.

Additionally, he said the creation of Jamaica's specialist performing arts high school is in keeping with the Government's focus on diversifying secondary level programme offerings in several institutions. The school will be constructed in St James.

The ministry has already identified Knockalva Agricultural School in Ramble, Hanover, as the first established secondary institution earmarked to undergo this transformative programme diversification.