TODAY’S celebration of Jamaica Day in schools is an opportunity to showcase the best examples of the island, according to event convenor Amina Blackwood Meeks.

“Jamaica Day is an opportunity to live one of the objectives in the Culture in Education Programme, which is to raise Jamaicans to be the best examples of Jamaicans to Jamaicans,” she said.

Blackwood Meeks, who is also the director of the Culture in Education Programme at the Ministry of Education, reasoned that there is a community and education benefit to the observance of the day.

“We want our children to understand their culture, who they are, where they are from… in the context of their various communities. It (Jamaica Day) allows each of the schools to engage in community renewal projects, unique to where they are located, and build relationships with past student associations,” she said.

While the majority of the schools will have the day’s observance where they are located, the national focus will take place at the Norman Manley High School, in St Andrew, under the theme ‘Celebrating Jamaica: Celebrating Regional Friendships From Boukman To Bolivar’.

There will be presentations from Minister of Education Ronald Thwaites; Minister of Finance and Planning Dr Peter Phillips; Mayor of Kingston Angella Brown Burke; and a representative of the Norman Manley Law School.

Guest speaker will be Venezuelan Ambassador to Jamaica, Jacqueline Mendoza Ortega.

The event will have a flag-raising ceremony, cultural presentations, as well as performances from students.

This year’s Jamaica Day activities will include the development of a peer mentorship programme, in which senior students of Norman Manley High mentor students from Maxfield Park and Rousseau Primary Schools. Volunteers from the high school will also implement projects with the Maxfield Park Children’s Home.

“This is the one day that we want our students to look with eyes of approval at themselves, and the day when we encourage the wider community to live the vision of a better Jamaica, so that what we learn in school is applicable outside of the school gates,” Blackwood Meeks said.