JSIF to roll out 100 climate greenhouses as PEP maths scores climb and tourism certifications surge

The Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) will establish one hundred climate-resilient greenhouses across four parishes as part of ongoing Hurricane Melissa recovery efforts. Managing Director Omar Sweeney told a Jamaica Information Service think tank that the initiative, valued at close to one billion dollars, is meant to help farmers better withstand climate-related shocks. The infrastructure will include water reservoirs storing one to two million gallons, solar pumping, rainwater harvesting, drip fertigation, tanks, and related systems.

The greenhouse programme forms part of a wider agriculture recovery portfolio for the 2026–2027 fiscal year worth roughly two billion dollars. Sweeney said further support is expected through the Green Climate Fund, for which JSIF is accredited, and through a partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization that will bring fifty million dollars in resources over five years. He said that agreement is about to be signed.

Minister of Water, Environment and Climate Change Matthew Samura has pushed back against claims that water projects serve only selected areas while neglecting others. At this week's post-Cabinet press briefing, he argued that projects are being developed across constituencies, citing the Western Resilience Project. That initiative will see a pipeline run from Martha Bray to western Westmoreland and connect with a major distribution main and two water treatment plants—one at Great River on the boundary of eastern Hanover and western St. James, and the other at the Martha Bray treatment plant.

Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett told Parliament this week that annual certification output for tourism workers has grown from forty graduates in 2017 to more than three thousand certified persons by the end of the 2025–2026 financial year. He said three thousand two hundred and seventy-three graduate certificates were issued from three thousand five hundred and eighty-nine registrations, producing a ninety-one per cent pass rate. Certificates covered guest service, food safety, hospitality supervision, hospitality management, hotel operation, leadership, revenue management, culinary development, and other disciplines. More than twenty-five thousand tourism workers have been certified through internationally benchmarked programmes at the Jamaica Center for Tourism Innovation.

Students sitting this year's grade six Primary Exit Profile examinations recorded significant improvement in mathematics, with sixty-nine per cent rated proficient or highly proficient—one percentage point below the Ministry of Education's seventy per cent target and up from fifty-seven per cent in 2023. Girls outperformed boys in the subject. In language arts, five and a half per cent of students were highly proficient, sixty-six and a half per cent proficient, twenty-seven per cent developing, and one per cent at beginning level, leaving seventy-two per cent proficient or above. The education minister gave the breakdown at a PEP press conference held at Jamaica House on Monday.

Pupils at Granville Primary and Infant School in St. James are now benefiting from enhanced emotional and mental-health support following the opening of a dedicated play therapy room. The facility was established through a partnership involving the Sandals Foundation, Food for the Poor Jamaica, and the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information. Counselling spaces were also upgraded at Irwin Primary School in St. James and Port Maria Primary and Infant School in St. Mary with therapeutic tools, sensory materials, creative resources, and child-friendly furnishings. Food for the Poor Jamaica Executive Director Denise Jefferson said the project includes training for forty guidance counsellors. Principal of Irwin Primary Kingsley Bailey described the play therapy room as a safe haven where students can heal and develop emotionally, socially, and mentally.

Jamaicans are again being urged to exercise caution online after the circulation of a fraudulent AI-generated video featuring Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce Delano Seiverite. The deep fake falsely depicts him endorsing an investment scheme. In a statement, Mr. Seiverite said he has no connection to the investment opportunity or financial scheme being promoted and appealed to Jamaicans at home and in the diaspora not to send money, share personal or financial information, or engage with links associated with the video. Members of the public are encouraged to verify information through official sources and to report the fraudulent video.

Government is also expanding substance-abuse prevention and support services with the opening of the National Council on Drug Abuse (NCDA) Northeast Regional Office in Drax Hall, St. Ann. Officials said new psychoactive substances, including MDA, commonly known as Molly or ecstasy, pose a growing threat to youth and adults, with links to anxiety, depression, and acute psychotic episodes in some cases. Data cited at the launch show alcohol and tobacco use in St. Ann exceeds the national average, making the parish a strategic hub for the northeast region. The office offers free walk-in counselling, psycho-education, harm reduction, and justice-linked recovery pathways, including collaboration with the Ministry of Justice on a drug court programme.