Commendation to the staff at Alston High School

THE EDITOR, Madam:

KINDLY ALLOW me space in your prestigious newspaper to pay tribute to the staff at Alston High School in Clarendon for the excellent work they are doing in agriculture through greenhouse technology.

I had the privilege of touring the greenhouse recently and I was very impressed with what I saw. The farm had some of the highest quality sweet peppers and callaloo. I also learnt that all the students who sat the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate agricultural science exam in 2019 achieved a passing grade.

Great things are happening at some of these non-traditional high schools, like Alston High, and the Government needs to invest more in agriculture in our schools to get our youths gainfully employed and interested in the field, as well as making an agricultural revolution happen through greenhouse technology.

As an educator and small farmer, I am convinced beyond the possibility of being persuaded otherwise, that a revolution in agriculture through science and technology is the way out of poverty for Jamaica.

I implore principal Adrian Sinclair and the hard-working staff at Alston High School to make their case to the member of parliament, Mr Richard Azan and the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Audley Shaw, to make more resources available to the school for an expansion of the agricultural programme at that institution and other schools with similar propensity and capacity.