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MONTEGO BAY, St James — As the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) kicked off its third annual Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Summer Camp at its western Montego Bay campus Wednesday, university president Dr. Kevin Brown has drawn urgent national attention to a growing breakdown in Jamaica’s secondary-to-tertiary education pipeline, warning that dismal pass rates on regional secondary exams are leaving thousands of young people locked out of higher education and intensifying competition for a tiny pool of qualified applicants.

Every year, roughly 30,000 Jamaican high school students sit for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC), the standardized exam that marks completion of secondary education across the region. Current data shows that only 20 percent — just 6,000 students total — earn the minimum five passing scores required for entry to most Jamaican tertiary institutions, including mandatory passes in both mathematics and English. An additional 5,000 students earn five subject passes but lack required qualifications in math or English, leaving them ineligible for admission at most post-secondary schools.

This severe shortage of qualified graduates has turned recruitment into a zero-sum game for Jamaica’s 16 tertiary education providers, Brown explained. From the regionally renowned University of the West Indies to the Caribbean Maritime University and local teacher training colleges, every public and private post-secondary institution is competing for the same small cohort of eligible students. For UTech alone, incoming classes require 3,000 qualified new students each year — half of the entire national pool of students who meet minimum entry requirements. “You have a pipeline issue,” Brown emphasized.

Beyond the competition between universities, Brown warned that the crisis poses a far more urgent social threat: 24,000 CSEC candidates leave secondary education each year without the qualifications needed to pursue tertiary study. While some of these young people enter vocational training through Jamaica’s HEART/NSTA Trust agency or join the workforce, a large share are left without clear pathways to stable employment or upward mobility. “That’s a scary thought,” Brown said of the growing cohort of out-of-school youth left behind by the current education system.

In response to this growing gap, UTech has positioned its STEM Summer Camp as a long-term national intervention, rather than just a campus recreational program. Now in its third iteration, the initiative was created and spearheaded by UTech Western Campus Coordinator Antoinette Smith, who launched the program just days after Hurricane Beryl hit Jamaica in 2024. Despite post-storm uncertainty, the first camp drew more than 80 participants, proving immediate demand for hands-on STEM learning opportunities for young Jamaicans. Building on that early success, the program expanded to UTech’s Papine Campus in Kingston in 2025, reaching an additional 100 students, while Montego Bay participation grew to more than 120. This year, the program will serve 200 underserved youth aged 11 to 16 across both campuses.

This year’s camp, themed “Resilient Futures: Empowering Jamaican Youth Through STEM Innovation for Climate Action, Community Impact and Sustainable Development”, runs from July 13 to 24 at the Montego Bay campus and July 20 to 31 in Papine. In addition to core STEM topics including environmental science, robotics, artificial intelligence, engineering design, and mathematics, the program integrates training in entrepreneurship, personal wellness, and career exploration to build critical employability skills for Jamaica’s fast-changing digital economy. Smith noted that recent disruptions from Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall in October 2025 and caused widespread damage across western Jamaica, reinforced the camp’s focus on building youth resilience and adaptive problem-solving skills.

The initiative relies entirely on private sector sponsorship, which Brown framed as a critical investment in Jamaica’s future workforce, rather than just philanthropic support for the university. Longtime corporate partners including Exelerate Energy and National Bakery have backed the camp since its launch, a commitment Brown said he does not take for granted. “They could say no,” he noted.

National Bakery Executive Director Laurie Ann Samuels, who spoke at Wednesday’s launch, explained her company’s longstanding support by pointing out that sustainable national growth depends on investing in young people. “Meaningful development of our country begins with investing in our people; particularly our youth,” Samuels said. “When we create opportunities for young Jamaicans to learn, explore, innovate, and dream bigger; we help to shape the future of our country. That is why initiatives like this STEM Summer Camp are so important.”

For organizers and education leaders, the camp is more than a summer enrichment activity — it is a targeted effort to expand the pipeline of STEM-qualified young Jamaicans, address the growing education gaps flagged by Brown, and build a more skilled, competitive workforce for the country’s long-term development.

A deadly explosion and subsequent fire at a Kingston, Jamaica garage adjacent to courier firm Beryllium Limited has left one person dead, with two others critically injured flown to the United States for advanced burn care and one remaining in local hospital treatment, emergency and company officials confirmed Thursday.

The blast, which injured four men spanning the garage’s management team, a Beryllium operations employee, an air conditioning technician and a welder, has rocked the local business community, with coordinated response efforts launched immediately across public medical institutions, local nonprofits and private sector stakeholders.

In an official statement released Thursday, Beryllium Limited confirmed that one external contractor working on-site at the garage facility had succumbed to his injuries. Local media Jamaica Observer later identified the deceased as Richard McQuire. The company extended its deepest sympathy to McQuire’s family, friends and loved ones, saying the organization shared their grief during this devastating period.

The two surviving critically injured victims—Damian Walter and Richard McPherson—were transported via ambulance from Kingston Public Hospital (KPH), where they had been admitted since the incident, to Norman Manley International Airport. A specialized air ambulance was on standby to transfer the pair to top-tier U.S. burn treatment centers. One victim is bound for UCSF Medical Center in California, while the second will receive care at the JMS Burn Center in Atlanta, Georgia, a facility widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading burn care institutions.

Nicholas Benjamin, deputy chairman of the Guardsman Group, Beryllium’s parent company, confirmed that the third surviving injured victim remains in stable condition receiving ongoing care at a Jamaican hospital. Benjamin emphasized that expediting access to specialized care for the two critically injured men was the top priority to maximize their odds of survival.

“Our staff and contracted workers are our most fundamental responsibility, and safeguarding their well-being is our primary duty,” Benjamin told reporters on the tarmac at Norman Manley International Airport. “Over the past 36 hours, it has become even clearer that timely intervention is non-negotiable for burn patients. Moving them quickly to advanced care is the single most critical step we can take right now.”

He added that even with severe third-degree burns, the two men remained in remarkably high spirits as they boarded the transfer ambulance, a moment that left a lasting impact. “Seeing their positive attitudes lifted all of us up. This is an incredibly difficult ordeal for them, and it’s hard for our team to see them suffer, but their resilience has given all of us strength to keep pushing forward to support them,” he said.

Stephen Josephs, founder of the Burn Foundation of Jamaica, which partnered on the transfer logistics, praised the rapid response from local medical teams at KPH for laying the groundwork for the successful transfer. “I cannot say enough good about the physicians, nurses and entire KPH team for how quickly they shared critical patient information and stabilized the men. Information is everything when coordinating an emergency international transfer, and their phenomenal work got us to this point,” Josephs noted.

Benjamin echoed that praise, noting that the KPH medical team acted swiftly to stabilize the two patients, preparing them for the next phase of their treatment and recovery. “We are deeply grateful to our local medical colleagues for their incredible work,” he said.

Guardsman Group founder Kenny Benjamin, who was present at the airport for the departure, reiterated that the company’s core priority is its people. “Our business revolves around people, so supporting these men and their families is the most important work we can do right now. I’m proud that every stakeholder came together quickly to do everything possible to help,” he said.

In its official statement, Beryllium Limited and the Guardsman Group confirmed that the well-being, care and full recovery of all those affected remain the organization’s absolute top priority. Since the explosion occurred, the company has worked in close lockstep with local and international medical professionals, emergency response teams and government authorities to put in place all required medical logistics, travel arrangements and family support for the victims. Professional trauma counselors have also been brought in to provide emotional support for Beryllium staff who were impacted by the incident. The company added that it remains fully committed to supporting all affected individuals and their families, and will continue cooperating fully with authorities as the investigation into the cause of the explosion moves forward.