See below excerpts from Opposition Leader Mark Golding’s 2024/25 Budget Debate presentation titled, ‘Road To Change: Readers’ Digest Policy Proposals’:

1. Expand and Improve the School Feeding Programme – A PNP-led administration will expand and improve the school feeding programme to ensure adequate and proper nutrition and encourage school attendance.
2. Prioritise Early Childhood and Primary Education – A PNP-led administration will prioritise the early childhood and primary school system to raise standards and eliminate the major existing literacy and numeracy deficits. Our goal is for Jamaica to have the best early childhood and primary school system in the hemisphere.
3. Investing in Teacher Education and Training – A PNP-led administration will make investments in teacher training and compensation, in infrastructure and technology, and in support services for parenting.
4. Focusing on STEAM Education – A PNP-led administration will prioritise STEAM education across the education system.
5. Scholarships for Higher Education – A PNP-led administration will provide one full scholarship per family for a university degree.
6. Tax Exemptions for Educational Tools – A PNP-led administration will remove taxes from laptops and tablets for students, and provide every teacher with a laptop.
7. Supporting Teachers through Concessions – A PNP-led administration will provide them with student debt reductions and motor vehicle concessions which increase with their years of service.
8. Enhancing Teacher Benefits – A PNP-led administration will provide teachers with enhanced access to NHT loans and priority in housing allocations in NHT-financed schemes.
9. Internet Access for Educators – A PNP-led administration will provide teachers with a package deal, to be negotiated by the Government, for free internet service as a tool of trade.
10. Youth Incentives for Education – A PNP-led administration we will incentivise youths to invest in their education by capping their monthly student loan payments at a reasonable percentage of their actual income.
11. Repurposing HEART for Workforce Preparation – A PNP-led administration will reinvigorate and repurpose HEART to be a major player in a wider project to prepare the workforce for the current and emerging employment opportunities in the 21st century.
12. Developing Workforce Training Partnerships – A PNP-led administration will create a series of Workforce Development Training Partnerships with the private sector, to develop a competitively market-driven approach to training the workforce.
13. Encouraging Employer-Driven Training Programmes – A PNP-led administration will allow to HEART to support private sector-led investments in training by matching grants of 50 per cent of the cost of any employer-identified, third-party-delivered training programme.
14. Internship Programme Incentives – A PNP-led administration will provide incentives to encourage employers to establish internship programmes that build the needs of their business and industry into the course offerings of tertiary and skills-training institutions.
15. Utilising School Infrastructure for Community Training – A PNP-led administration will utilise the school infrastructure to enhance training both for school children and the surrounding communities.
16. Integrating Civics Education – A PNP-led administration will entrench civics education as a core subject in the national curriculum.
17. Incorporating Marcus Garvey’s Teachings – A PNP-led administration will build the teachings of National Hero Marcus Garvey into the school curriculum at all levels at an age-appropriate basis, to encourage self-belief, personal responsibility and self-actualisation in the nation’s youth.
18. Establishing a National Research & Developing Council – A PNP-led administration will establish a National Research & Development (R&D) Council bringing all relevant institutions together from within the State, academia and private sector, and the trade unions to develop, monitor and evaluate a national R&D strategy.
19. Accelerating Research & Development Tax Write-Offs – A PNP-led administration will provide for the accelerated tax write-off of expenditure on R&D to encourage greater private investment in innovation that ties agriculture to manufacturing, science, technology and advancing the labour force.