WESTERN BUREAU:Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, the member of parliament (MP) for St James East Central, says efforts must be made to develop the educational potential of the planned Barrett Hall township to support the area’s long-term growth.Addressing last Friday’s 30th anniversary staging of his annual East Central St James Education Fund Scholarship Awards Ceremony at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in Rose Hall, St James, Bartlett said he is in discussions with the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information and the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) to advance educational plans for Barrett Town and surrounding communities.“The minister of education (Dr Dana Morris Dixon) and I have been talking about setting up the first STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) school in Barrett Hall, and we are looking at consolidating the educational facilities in the Rose Hall area. We have raised some money for it, we have done the design, and we have been working with private-sector partners who are trying, with me, to build out the new township of Barrett Town,” said Bartlett.“We are working with the UDC to deal with that whole area where the school, the post office, and the craft market are; and we are building, across the road, a first-class, high- quality beach complex for the people of Barrett Town, Lilliput, Grange Pen, and Rhyne Park, and that beach park will rival Harmony Beach Park [in Montego Bay]. We now need to build out the educational capacity to enable the workers, the staff, and everybody else to be there,” Bartlett added.In June 2025, Bartlett announced the establishment of the region’s first Tourism Innovation Township in Barrett Town. The development will include additional commercial projects on the Rollins lands (Rose Hall Developments), across from the Dreams Rose Hall Resort and Spa (formerly Hilton), which have already been sold for the construction of service stations and retail outlets.The project will also include a US$1.5-million Early Childhood Education Innovation Centre, for which funding has been secured since as far back as 2023. The facility is expected to be built on one acre of land in the Barrett Town area and cater to children between the ages of two and five.Bartlett told Friday’s function that he was strengthening the educational foundation in St James East Central so that the constituency’s education fund can continue to benefit students of all ages long after he eventually steps down as MP.“I am putting in place this year the framework with its future, to enable this programme to continue whether I am the MP or not. If we do not secure the children of today, we are destroying the Jamaica of tomorrow, and that has been my motto all throughout this programme,” said Bartlett.“This is a bigger, stronger programme that is going to see whoever succeeds me becoming incidental in relation to the education development of East Central St James.”Ninety-four students from schools across St James East Central were recognised during Friday’s programme, including the constituency’s top-performing students in this year’s sitting of the Primary Exit Profile examinations.christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com