In response to the recent conversations surrounding his time in office and accomplishments, Prime Minister Andrew Holness has declared that he has spent much of his time implementing old policies as he is a man of action who will always “get it done”.

Holness was speaking at a town hall meeting on education where he addressed the current state of Jamaica’s education system.

He noted that, long before the pandemic, the Government had identified that the state of the nation’s education system was in need of transformation.

He said that, to his recollection, the last time “any form of comprehensive review and transformation in our education system took place was in the early 2000s”.

This took place through the formation of a National Education Task Force founded in 2004 under the leadership of then Prime Minister PJ Patterson.

But, according to Holness, a recommendation was also made for the government to institute the Jamaica Teaching Council in 2004 that the then administration struggled to implement, but he would “get it done”.

He added that his job as prime minister is not only to come up with new policies and implement.

“I have spent half my time trying to implement legacies that are unfinished. So I want to put it, when the conversations are going on, to put things into context. Because, as I say, sometimes the narrative is very light and it floats off without being anchored in the facts and realities.”

He noted that “it is, therefore, an urgent national priority for us to align our education system with the needs of our people, our national development plan, and the direction of the globe” and the Government is taking action to fix the education crisis.