Author name: Professor Canute Thompson

In an August 2023 article on this site, titled “Making sense of Jamaica’s lowering unemployment rate”, I noted that while unemployment was at a (then) historic low, at 4.5%, the poverty rates had increased by over 50% in the three-year period from 2019 to 2021, moving from 11% in 2019 to 16.7% in 2021.  The point […]

I write to draw urgent attention to a structural transformation quietly reshaping housing markets across the developing world — one that Jamaica must confront before its consequences become irreversible. For generations, the fundamental logic of housing was simple: a developer builds, a family buys, and the price is anchored to what working people can reasonably

Teachers across Jamaican classrooms demonstrate remarkable commitment to plan lessons, manage behaviour, cover curricula, and prepare students for assessments. Yet, a critical instructional distinction deserves reflection: a classroom may appear orderly, busy, and engaged while meaningful learning remains cognitively shallow. Activity is visible. Depth of learning is not.  A classroom may appear orderly, busy, and engaged while meaningful

In a few weeks’ time, it will be four months since Hurricane Melissa wrought untold and unprecedented devastation on the south and west of Jamaica.  I have had the painful exposure to  some of the horrific destruction, first hand.  The latest of which was on February 7, 2026, when the Philosophy of Education Movement of the Caribbean (PEMCA)

& Patricia Scarlett-Forrester Hurricane Melissa, which hit Jamaica on Tuesday, October 28, 2025 as a Category 5 storm, was a large-scale disaster that had  strong emotional effects on those who experienced it, and even for individuals not directly affected. The scope of devastation and loss of lives is very disturbing and hard to comprehend, therefore students,

I watched with gut-wrenching pain, the horror stories of people whose homes were damaged by the torrential rains in Kingston on Friday, September 19, 2025.  The videos of cars being washed away and bundled together in flooded roads were scary. It is well-known that nature expresses her wrath ever so often.  As a real estate developer and

Public service is an honourable endeavour and those who engage, or aspire to engage, therein, are to be commended and supported on all fronts, provided their activities are legal and ethical, and advance the public’s best interests.  In many cases, engagement in public service requires that one choose a political side, although many public servants do

In the previous article we examined the genesis of the journey, information gathered from research and the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on CXC preparations. In this second piece we will be examining the methodologies that were applied, and how learning challenges were bridged for the students’ development in preparation for CXC. Policy recommendations

This is a two-part article. The first segment will discuss the genesis of the journey, the type of research conducted and the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic. The second instalment will examine the methodologies that were applied, and how learning challenges were bridged for the students’ development in preparation for Caribbean Examinations Council Examinations

Let me begin with a self-statement. I am 62 years old and feel as strong as when I was in my twenties.  In most areas of activity (physical and intellectual), I exercise strength and agility. My workday typically starts at 4:00 a.m. and ends after 10: 00 p.m. Over the last thirty years, I have been