WATCH: Holness defends comments about outdoor lessons

KINGSTON, Jamaica—Prime Minister Andrew Holness is pushing back at criticisms surrounding his remarks that learning can extend beyond four walls, noting that his recent comments were not an argument put forward to replace classrooms.

Holness, who was speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Greater Bernard Lodge Housing Development in St Catherine on Friday, argued that there are hundreds of peer-reviewed studies which show the benefit of having students learn in conditions that are conducive, including being outdoors.

“There are literally hundreds of peer-reviewed studies which show the benefit of having students’ studies which show the benefit of having students being able to learn in conditions that are conducive; such conditions include being outdoors. Something, by the way, which many of our children don’t get as much as they should. They are locked in homes behind screens, playing with their telephones. Our children need to be in garden surroundings where they get to appreciate nature. This is not an argument to replace classrooms. Where did that come from? And people follow it as if it is the truth. They don’t even listen,” Holness said.