Commentary

An estimated five per cent of students drop out before the end of grade nine, and up to eight per cent exit the system between grades nine and 10.
Published 16 hours ago

Editorial | Tracking all students

The disclosure that 335 students remain missing from Jamaica’s classrooms five months after Hurricane Melissa highlights the urgency of establishing a robust system to monitor children’s school performance and track their whereabouts if, and when, they go missing.

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Rescue workers search for victims at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit a crowded neighbourhood south of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, April 5, 2026.
Published 16 hours ago

Elizabeth Morgan | While they stand aside and look ...

In the crisis engulfing the world with the USA as the main protagonist, the general view seems to be that leaders should not rock the boat, but should remain focused on their own concerns, staying…
Published 16 hours ago

Natalia Burton | No more junk food should be dumped in schools

When the National School Nutrition Policy (SNP) was approved in May 2025, it marked an important step forward for school nutrition in Jamaica. It signalled a clear commitment by the Government to…
In an era of increasing geopolitical instability and unpredictable climate events, the risk of sudden disruptions to international trade routes remains high. Proactively reworking our agricultural systems to have more factors of production under our contro
Published 3 hours ago

Wayne Ganpat and Howard Batson | Gulf conflict reveals need for Low External Input Agriculture model for Caribbean food security

There is every likelihood that if the current conflict in the Middle East persists, food prices will rise again! Higher costs associated with moving food for humans to the Western region is to be…
Prime Minister, Dr Andrew Holness, delivers his contribution to the 2026/27 Budget Debate.
April 7, 2026

Editorial | Making NaRRA better

In Jamaica, public institutions often fail because of bad policy design. They are given sweeping mandates, blurred lines of authority, weak performance systems, and too much dependence on the supposed…
A Palestinian, wounded in a settler rampage, at the Palestine Medical Complex in the West Bank city of Ramallah, in April 2024.
April 7, 2026

Michael Abrahams | Israel’s Palestinian purge prescription

On March 30, 1976, Israeli police killed six unarmed Palestinian citizens of Israel and injured over 100 others while they were protesting the state’s confiscation of nearly 5,000 acres of Palestinian…
Opposition Leader Mark Golding
April 7, 2026

Gordon Robinson | The essence of bronze

Political temperatures overheated in Apocrypha, our favourite fantasyland beyond the stars. An alleged tax evasion scheme, with Apocrypha’s main public hospital’s help, resulted in fingers being…
Francesca Tavares, Attorney-at-Law
April 7, 2026

Francesca Tavares | The slave trades the UN forgot

The United Nations’ recent resolution designating the Transatlantic Slave Trade as the “greatest historical evil” is a troubling exercise in historiographical reductionism – one that prioritises…
Ronald Thwaites writes: We are a follow-fashion people, and the model put before our children and all of us is that the supreme objective of life is to have my way and gain my advantage whoever else have to get jook.
April 6, 2026

Ronald Thwaites | Way to go

“Me have some new zinc sheet a sell. You want it fi one a yu church memba dem whey house blow down?” That was the offer from one of the few recipients who had received his rebuilding grant last week.…
April 6, 2026

Carvell McLeary | Demise of the 40-hour workweek?

Is the 40-hour workweek, the sacred foundation of employment practices, at an end? Is it blasphemous to offer such words? As Jamaican businesses struggle with productivity concerns, culture and…