230,000 Students to Receive Breakfast through PATH

Beginning in September 2013, approximately 230,000 students will receive a breakfast supplement under the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH).

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Portia Simpson Miller, made the announcement during a national broadcast on Sunday (January 6), in which she addressed several wide ranging topics following her first year in office.

In other education related matters, the Prime Minster stated that master teacher classes will begin broadcasting to schools, with 600 institutions expected to benefit from this initiative over the next two years.

She noted too that, “five hundred basic schools will be merged with primary schools beginning in the 2013/2014 school term and we have begun building 50 basic schools in conjunction with Food for the Poor.”

Addressing the matter of higher education, Mrs. Simpson Miller promised that, “creative ways will be found to enable more of the children of the poor to attend tertiary institutions this year.”

The Prime Minister called on parents to live up to their responsibilities to their children. “Love them, cherish them and nurture them. They are our future. We cannot build a successful, quality society without a strong family network,” she emphasized.        

“We cannot build strong families by abusing our children or neglecting them,” Mrs. Simpson Miller said, and asked the nation to “develop a greater sense of personal responsibility toward one another.”