Minister of Education and Youth, Hon. Faval Williams (left), greets students at the Hope Valley Experimental School graduation exercise, held at the University Chapel in St. Andrew on June 29.

Today, the U.S. Embassy in Kingston launched the U.S. and Jamaican EdTech Women POWER Connect at a virtual event attended by Charge d’Affaires John McIntyre and Minister of Education, Youth and Information, The Honorable Fayval Williams. Women in EdTech POWER Connect will create lasting connections between U.S. and Jamaican women in the field of education technology and provide a forum to share experiences in starting and expanding an EdTech business.

According to Charge McIntyre, “The importance of the EdTech sector and the role of women entrepreneurs in this field has never been more apparent than it is right now, as countries struggle to educate their children in the context of the pandemic. We also know that the success of global economic recovery efforts depends on our ability to include all citizens in the economy, especially women.”

Through this launch event and a series of webinars, Women in EdTech POWER Connect will address common barriers like financing, marketing, branding, and licensing EdTech products, in addition to leveraging public sector opportunities and public-private partnerships, which are key to the education sector. The program will benefit 37 women entrepreneurs in Jamaica and their peers in the U.S. who either already have an EdTech business or have a concept to launch. This program is funded through POWER (Providing Opportunities for Women’s Economic Rise), the U.S. Department of State Bureau for Economic and Business Affairs’ initiative to support women’s entrepreneurship and economic empowerment. POWER helps women in the U.S. and abroad identify opportunities and develop competitive strategies in emerging sectors traditionally dominated by men.

This initiative also complements USAID efforts to help bridge the technology gap among students by supporting the Government of Jamaica’s “One Laptop or Tablet Per Child”. In all, USAID contributed more than 2,000 laptops or tablets across the country to support distance learning during the pandemic. In places like Montego Bay’s Flanker neighborhood, designated as a hotspot for crime and violence, USAID programming also helped a local church establish a learning center to assist with virtual learning. USAID assistance provided equipment (laptops, tablets), internet access, and established strict COVID-19 guidelines that enable the center to operate safely. This assistance is in addition to the more than J$600 million in COVID-19 assistance the United States has provided to Jamaica.

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Initial Officer Training Programme (IOTP) provides basic military officer training to Officer Cadets (OCdts) and their equivalents from law enforcement and uniformed services. The programme falls within the tactical level of the Professional Military Education (PME) framework of armed forces and is modelled from the Royal Military Academy Sandhursts’ (RMAS) Commissioning Course.  It was designed with the direct support and guidance of RMAS Instructing and Support Staff.

Traditionally, the Jamaica Defence Force’s (JDF) longstanding partnerships with militaries across the world has seen its OCdts being trained in academies in the following countries: United States, England, Canada, China and India. Upon the return of OCdts to the JDF, there is a requirement for doctrine and operating procedure standardization due to the varying concepts and differing contents of the training they had undergone. This is normally done at the Unit level and later, through a Young Officers’ Course. The advent of COVID-19 added a new level of complexity to travel, thus negatively affecting the process of sending OCdts overseas. Additionally, the ongoing expansion and restructuring of the Force to cauterize the ballooning threats to national security has caused an increased demand for newly commissioned Second Lieutenants.

Due to the carefully adapted military and academic curricula, IOTP serves as the course to treat with the aforementioned considerations. The methodology used addresses each issue directly and the course, through the delivery of a bespoke training syllabus, is fit for the JDF and is also relevant to the militaries and organizations within the Caribbean region and in other parts of the world.

Having the RMAS approach to training at its core, IOTP is designed with a syllabus that sees male and female integration throughout training. The course focusses on developing military skills and command with a leadership ‘golden thread’. The course structure allows the Instructing Staff to educate, build, develop and scrutinize an OCdt’s ability to decide and communicate accurately and ethically while under pressure and or stress. The expectation is that on commissioning, an OCdt will be fully cognizant of the responsibilities and personal conditions that being an Officer imposes upon them. The product of the IOTP will be an ethical and robust Officer who has the knowledge, skills, attitudes and intellectual agility to adapt their decision-making process and approach to any environment.

The home of IOTP is the Caribbean Military Academy (CMA) Newcastle, which is located at the Newcastle Hill Station, St Andrew, Jamaica.

Nestled in the cool hills of upper St Andrew and amidst beautiful trees, ferns, ground orchids, delicate wild flowers and a profusion of ginger lilies, is the Newcastle

Training Depot founded in 1841 by Major General Sir William Maynard Gomm (later Field Marshall). Gomm, a veteran of the wars against revolutionary France and Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica from 1840 to 1841, relentlessly badgered the War Office in London to establish a mountain station for British soldiers in Jamaica soon after taking up his post.

The idea of the hill station was first raised by Gomm in a letter dated April 7, 1840 to Governor Sir Charles Metcalfe. Gomm pointed out that while Up Park Camp was an ideal location for a barracks, it was subject to the ravages of yellow fever. In Jamaica the

British garrison was stationed on the plain at Up Park Camp, Stony Hill, Fort Augusta and Port Royal. Here, on the average, 1 soldier died every 2½ days. According to Russell, the year 1838 was considered a ‘good’ year: only 91 men died. In 1839, 110 men perished and in the following year 121. Initially, the British government was conservative in approving a hill station for the troops in Jamaica. They were concerned about the expense of the venture.

In May 1841, London finally sanctioned Gomm’s efforts to build what is thought to be the first permanent mountain station in the British West Indies at Newcastle. The site selected was a coffee plantation protruding from the southern face of the grand ridge of the Blue Mountains. The British government paid £4,230 for the Newcastle site.

At the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945), life at Newcastle changed a little. The British regiment was replaced by Canadian regiments which remained at Newcastle for the duration of the war. With hostilities over in 1945, the Canadians left and once again a British battalion was stationed there.

In 1958, the West Indies Federation was founded and the infantry regiments of the various Caribbean islands were disbanded and reorganized into the West India Regiment. Newcastle became a training depot, training recruits from all over the West Indies as part of the

newly formed West Indies Federation. In 1962 when Federation was disbanded, the West India Regiment was also disbanded. Jamaica simultaneously sought her independence, which was achieved on August 6, 1962. With independence, Newcastle was given to the Jamaican government as part of a general settlement of all military lands in Jamaica.