CHOICES @ Vicor Dixon High

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CHOICES SONG CONTEST

Well as you may know CHOICES recently had our CHOICES CAREER & EDUCATION EXPO IN KINGSTON @ UTECH. As a part of that expo, we had a special song contest for the schools, where participants were able to show of their talent through song.
The participants were told to create " A theme song reflecting the CHOICES Message"
CHOICES Says " GET ON TRACK FOR CAREER, EDUCATION AND LIFE"

The following are some of the Entries for the contest
A winner was announced at the Expo, but if you have a favourite PLEASE indicate your CHOICE in the comments:

1.First Entry from IMMACULATE CONCEPTION HIGH


2.Entry from LOUISE BENNETT COVERLY ALL AGE


3.Entry From CORNWALL COLLEGE



4. Entry from GRANVILLE VTC

Reid Calls for Universal Access at all Levels of Education

Chairman of the National Education Council, Ruel Reid, has stressed that Jamaica should move towards having universal access to secondary and tertiary education in the island, so the society can compete in a global world.

Reid, who was speaking recently at the 10th Annual CHOICES Career and Education Expo held at the University of Technology, said that the country should strive to have every boy and girl develop his or her potential.

"Research showed that up to the early 1990s in the English-speaking Caribbean, less than two per cent of the working population have been to a university. And by the way, it's not much different in 2010," he said.

Policies of the past

He attributes this to the policies of the past, which didn't allow more universities to be introduced to complement the University of the West Indies - the only one at the time.

This, Reid said, meant limited access to tertiary education, which has stymied the development of the region.

"In 2010, we are facing some challenges but part of the problem we face in 2010 is a result of the policies we have pursued over those years and, in a sense, we took too long to recognise that the world was changing and to provide the needs to allow our Caribbean people to better position ourselves for the 21st century," Reid explained.

There are now more than 15 public tertiary institutions in the island, along with several private universities.

Reid, who is also the principal of Jamaica College, said he would like to see Jamaica transfer its good record in primary education to the secondary and tertiary levels.

"While we have universal primary education, we have not, even now, achieved universal secondary education, because we started off with the junior secondary schools, (then added) some all-age schools," he said.

He continued, "You can't have a system where 26,000 to 30,000 students every year leave the high-school system and many of them, in fact, don't even have a space beyond third form. So we don't even have universal secondary, and we don't have universal tertiary. we have to solve the problem."


'While we have universal primary education, we have not, even now, achieved universal secondary education, because we started off with the junior secondary schools, (then added) some all-age schools.'

“CHOICES Can Help You Decide”

Message from Jamaica’s Minister of Education, Hon. Andrew Holness,
for CHOICES Career & Education Expo
Kingston leg - March 2010


I congratulate CHOICES Career Advice on staging another CHOICES Career & Education Exposition. Many young people want to choose fulfilling careers, but do not know how to go about doing so. CHOICES must be lauded for providing roadmaps through its expositions and magazines on how to choose careers.

Career planning is the route to career success for many persons. Young people, you can be successful without career planning, but that’s a hit or miss approach. To ensure you are successful in life, plan the path you want to take and work to achieve your goals. This process assumes you know enough to choose the path you want to take, I am sure some of you do while others do not have a clue. CHOICES can help you decide what it is you like, what you are good at and the direction you want to go.

As young people thinking about your futures, you have the chance to confront and change the problems besetting Jamaica. You have the opportunity to say yes to what's best in your communities and to say no to what's worst in your communities. You have a chance to say, through your career choices as well as through you decisions concerning the kinds of lives you want to lead, the type of society in which you want to live.

I hope that many of you, as you pursue your careers and your lives, will help to lead the nation in a direction that will push it toward growth and prosperity.

Thank you.