The speed at which technical and vocational education was being implemented in Jamaica was in response to the advocacy of industry and business to provide a workforce capable of meeting the economic development needs of the country. This trend towards strengthening technical and vocational education was further intensified with the international movement to integrate technical vocational education in the formal education system. In the 1970s, for example, the World Bank instituted as one of its portfolio strategies the development of post secondary education for training technicians.

The paper begins with an analysis of the impact of vocational education in Jamaica over the past 30 years. A critical look was taken of the two periods of major interventions in Jamaica: the introduction of the grades 10 and 11 programme in 1974 and the introduction of the HEART Trust in 1982. The article advances the view that vocational education in Jamaica has failed to have the required impact in preparing a workforce to respond adequately to issues of employment, productivity and efficiency.

The Jamaican education system is currently on a path of transformation. As outlined in the recommendations of the Task Force on Educational Reform (2004) report, it is envisaged that by 2015 significant progress will be made in student performance and the education system as a whole. One important plank of this process is the decentralization of the education system. With decentralization being implemented in the health sector and in particular the Ministry of Health (MOH) since 1998 and Local Government since 1994, what lessons can be learned from their experiences?

The aim of this study was to ascertain the root causes of absenteeism among children of the rural poor in one hundred Jamaican primary schools in which absenteeism was most problematic. The research utilized a mixed methods approach and involved transforming qualitative data into quantitative data and generating descriptive statistics. Focus group interviews were utilized to collect data from school and community members and involved 165 children, ranging in age from 7 to 12.