Supporting The Public Sector of Jamaica

public-sector

Education

Public spending on education was 6.4 per cent of GDP in 2010. Primary school comprises six years, beginning at the age of six, and secondary five. Some 95 per cent of pupils complete primary school (2009). There are several hundred private schools in Jamaica.

The regional University of the West Indies (UWI, established in 1946) has its principal campus at Mona, near Kingston. The Norman Manley Law School (1973) is located on the Mona campus of UWI. Some 50 other tertiary institutions – public and private – registered with the University Council of Jamaica in 2011. Literacy among people aged 15–24 is 95 per cent (2010).

 

Health

Public spending on health was three per cent of GDP in 2010. There are more than 20 hospitals, mostly public, and more than 340 health centres. Hospital services and government medical care are subsidised, with patients paying modest fees related to their income. Around nine per cent of the population has private health insurance. Infant mortality was 16 per 1,000 live births in 2011 (56 in 1960). In 2011, 1.8 per cent of people aged 15–49 were HIV positive.

 

Transport

There are 22,060 km of roads, 73 per cent of which are paved. There is no railway.

Main ports are Kingston Montego Bay in the north-west; and the international airports are Norman Manley International, 17 km south-east of Kingston, and Montego Bay International, 3 km north of the city. Air Jamaica is to be privatised, with the government selling its national airline to Caribbean Airlines. Air Jamaica’s real estate will remain the property of the Jamaican Government.

Public buses and minibuses are regulated by the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing.