JAJ’s Entrepreneurial Studies in Jamaican Schools in September 2018 enables the Total Man

“[We have] realigned our curriculum in what we now call the new standards curriculum to focus less on the passing of exams and more on the person we create at the end of the educational journey”

State Minister for Education Floyd Green during opening of a two-day Youth for Sustainable Development Conference at the University of Technology in St Andrew on Thursday, July 26, 2018

Come September 2018, all Grade 9 students will have to actually become entrepreneurs and start their own businesses.

This as the Ministry of Education has decided to make entrepreneurship classes mandatory in all high schools as reported in the article “Entrepreneurship Classes in All High Schools September”, published July 27, 2018 by Alecia Smith, The Jamaica Information Service.

To this end, the Ministry has partnered with the JAJ (Junior Achievement Jamaica) to incorporate the Junior Achievement Company of Entrepreneurs programme into the ninth-grade curriculum. The JAJ is part of the global non-profit organization, Junior Achievement Worldwide, which provides training for young people in the following areas:

1.      Entrepreneurship

2.      Financial literacy

3.      Work-readiness

Already in 40 schools, including Jose Marti Technical High School, 80 more high schools are being targeted in September 2018. The aim is to:

1.      Provide hands-on experience in running a business

2.      Learn the fundamental skills necessary to make successful enterprises

It is expected that the learning and practical experience gained from running the companies will provide students with a viable option to pursue entrepreneurship as their main income stream or may supplement it while being employed in their particular areas of training.

Now: Changing the Way We Learn by Implementing Entrepreneurship Classes in Schools with State Minister, @MOEYIJamaica, @floydgreenja pic.twitter.com/rLZ63SrAuy

— Smile Jamaica (@Smilejamtvj) August 3, 2018

This fits in nicely with the move to introduce TVET at all school by January 2019 as noted in my blog article entitled “Why TVET for Jamaican High Schools by September 2018 as Skilled Workers demand Rising” as entrepreneurship can be combined with TVET skills to help student to start a business upon leaving 5th form.

So why is this now being done so suddenly?

Jamaican Schools and Entrepreneurship - Working and Studying To Be The Total Man

One school I had worked at, Jose Marti High School, is way ahead of the curve, as this Technical High School was already teaching Entrepreneurship as a Vocational course. So come September 2018, entrepreneurial studies will be starting at Grade 9, meaning Grade 8 going into Grade 9 will have this option, with businesses being designed and undertaken in groups.

So clearly this decision by the State Minister for Education Floyd Green during opening of a two-day Youth for Sustainable Development Conference at the University of Technology in St Andrew on Thursday, July 26, 2018 is clearly aimed at making all high school students islandwide to live up to the motto: “Trabajando y estudiando para ser el hombre total” which translates “Working and Studying To Be The Total Man”.

This apparently is a restructuring of the educational system to make it less of a conveyor belt approach that merely rewards the academically brilliant with tertiary education, leaving those who did not make the grade to leave the system and suffer due to not having any certification. 

In the TVET and Entrepreneurial based approach to education, students are given further Technical and Vocational Instruction as well as Entrepreneurial skills in order to make them more able to make their own business with their skills once they reached Grade 10.

This as the previous system was more geared towards student who were more tactile (read/write) learners and not towards kinesthetic, visual and auditory learners. Thus it ensures that they time they reach Grade 10, they would have had enough training to not only work with their hands and minds but also start a business and make money on their own.

This is in case they did not qualify for 6th form or just simply could not afford to go or did not academically quality to go to a Tertiary educational institution. The results will be less criminals and more critical thinkers and individuals who are capable of charting their own destiny.

Entrepreneurship for Grade 9 - Best to introduce it at Grade 7

Entrepreneurial skills would make students possess the tools to become self-sufficient and potentially independent of being employed by others.

Hopefully, they will also be taught how to write a business plan, as a lack of a credible business plan is the main reason why some 20% of applicants fail to get loans as pointed out in my blog article entitled “20% of Jamaican MSME's Fail to get Bank Loans - Why MSME's need Business Plans, Marketing Plans and Market Research”. 

It would also help many to use their IP (Intellectual Property) to make innovative product that can even be used to fund their tertiary education as noted in my blog article entitled “How 9-y-o and Millennials in Jamaica are becoming CEO Entrepreneurs to avoid the Cubicle Rat Race”. 

I would recommend it be introduced to them at Grade 7 as pointed out by State Minister for Education Floyd Green, quote: “So, all our grade-nine students will come together in groups, and they will have to work with a business plan, they will have to put together a business and the business must have the principles of sustainability”.

Once you get them hooked at that early age, they will love it more than when they are in Grade 9 and being pressured by doing multiple subjects, they will choose this option that has the potential to free them and even fund their journey into tertiary education.

So come September 2018, all Jamaicans High School student will be Working and Studying To Be The Total Man via their inclusion of Entrepreneurial skills.