Bartlett advances STEAM school and education plans for Barrett Hall township

WESTERN BUREAU: Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, who represents St James East Central in Parliament, is calling for the planned Barrett Hall township to be built out with strong educational capacity so the area can grow over the long term.

Speaking last Friday at the 30th anniversary of his yearly East Central St James Education Fund Scholarship Awards Ceremony, held at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in Rose Hall, St James, Bartlett said he is engaging the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information and the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) on schooling and related facilities for Barrett Town and nearby communities.

"The minister of education (Dr Dana Morris Dixon) and I have been talking about setting up the first STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) school in Barrett Hall, and we are looking at consolidating the educational facilities in the Rose Hall area. We have raised some money for it, we have done the design, and we have been working with private-sector partners who are trying, with me, to build out the new township of Barrett Town," said Bartlett.

"We are working with the UDC to deal with that whole area where the school, the post office, and the craft market are; and we are building, across the road, a first-class, high- quality beach complex for the people of Barrett Town, Lilliput, Grange Pen, and Rhyne Park, and that beach park will rival Harmony Beach Park [in Montego Bay]. We now need to build out the educational capacity to enable the workers, the staff, and everybody else to be there," Bartlett added.

In June 2025, Bartlett unveiled plans for the island’s first Tourism Innovation Township in Barrett Town. The scheme covers further commercial development on the Rollins lands under Rose Hall Developments, opposite the Dreams Rose Hall Resort and Spa (previously the Hilton). Those parcels have already been sold for petrol stations and retail space.

Also part of the venture is a US$1.5-million Early Childhood Education Innovation Centre. Financing for the centre has been locked in since 2023. It is expected to sit on one acre in the Barrett Town area and serve youngsters aged two to five.

At Friday’s awards event, Bartlett said he is reinforcing the learning base in St James East Central so the constituency education fund can keep assisting pupils of every age after he leaves office as MP.

"I am putting in place this year the framework with its future, to enable this programme to continue whether I am the MP or not. If we do not secure the children of today, we are destroying the Jamaica of tomorrow, and that has been my motto all throughout this programme," said Bartlett.

"This is a bigger, stronger programme that is going to see whoever succeeds me becoming incidental in relation to the education development of East Central St James."

Ninety-four students drawn from schools throughout St James East Central were honoured at Friday’s ceremony, among them the constituency’s leading performers in this year’s Primary Exit Profile examinations.