| KINGSTON, June 25 (JIS): |
|
Member of Parliament (MP) for Central Clarendon,
Mike Henry is lobbying for incentives to be given to promote healthy
family lifestyles among Jamaicans and to encourage more students to
complete their secondary education. Such incentives, he said, could take the form of special grants to women for education. This grant, he said, could be given to women who have no children or one child. The Member of Parliament made the suggestions while making his contribution to the 2004/05 Sectoral Debate in Gordon House on Tuesday (June 23). He also suggested that free or special tertiary education grants should be given to male and female who have not fathered or mothered a child while in High School. The Central Clarendon MP pointed out that another incentive to foster a stable family life among Jamaicans was to offer special grants or discounts on house or land purchase to nuclear families. Meanwhile, turning to problems facing the education sector, such as, the high travel cost to students and teachers who have to travel very far distances from home to school and the growing failure of family life and parental guidance, Mr. Henry said that these problems could be addressed through the zoning of schools. “The
continued assigning of children based on the present system has
exacerbated the problems of travel – man hours wasted in Kingston
and major towns; hours spent on the road by children away from family
control results into exposure to drugs and sex,” he said. |
