JAMAICA-Government to revamp health program.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – The Jamaica government says it will undertake a “massive overhaul” of the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) to enable more families needing support to be identified for benefits.

“We have decided that we are going to do a massive overhaul of the PATH program in significant ways to ensure that the beneficiary identification system is far more targeted than it is now,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness told a news conference Thursday.

PATH is a social-safety-net program that provides conditional cash grants to vulnerable households within the population. It is administered through the Ministry of Labour and Social Security.

The program’s objectives are to increase educational attainment and improve health outcomes of the poor, alleviate poverty by increasing the value of the transfer to people experiencing poverty, reduce child labor by requiring children to have minimum attendance in school, and serve as a safety net for families.

But Holness told reporters that too often when he visits communities, there are complaints regarding the program and eligibility for qualification.

“There is a refining that needs to happen in the entire beneficiary identification system for PATH, so that will be addressed to ensure that we are picking up those persons in our society who are genuinely in need of that social-safety-net support.”

Holness said the move would ensure that more deserving families benefit from the program while improving access to education for beneficiary children. In addition, he said more resources would be placed in a back-to-school program “to ensure that all our students can go back to school in a meaningful way.”

Meanwhile, the government will shortly announce additional support for back-to-school activities across the island. Prime Minister Holness says the resources are necessary “to ensure that all our students can return to school in a meaningful way.”

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, recently announced that the government provides three million dollars (One Jamaica dollar=US$0.008 cents) per constituency to support back-to-school initiatives.

The funds will be available through the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).

Additionally, through the CDF, the government will be making available one million dollars per constituency for events in celebration of Jamaica’s Emancipation and Independence, as well as efforts to clean up local communities and host events at the community level.

“What the Minister of Finance announced specifically for back-to-school through the CDF is part of a general program. We will promote other initiatives in the coming days, which will see employment for persons who are presently unemployed, particularly in ensuring that in the Independence period and so forth, we have clean-up programs going on.

“We will also ensure that our schools [have] the resources they need to get back up very quickly, that those resources are in the budget. You’ll hear about more targeted programs to ensure that those persons who will be doing the Primary Exit Profile (PEP), for example, are particularly supported,” Holness added.

The new academic year begins on September 4 this year.