EDITORIAL: This challenging children problem for Jamaica govt

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - VARIOUS MEMBER STATES of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) face social, economic and political challenges at this time. It could, however, be quite disturbing to learn that Jamaica is not alone in having the very serious problem of thousands of its children living without birth certificates and consequently being kept out of the school.
About a quarter million such children in this predicament are in a population of approximately 2.8 million, according to a child protection specialist with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Janet Cupidon Quallo.
Perhaps even more disturbing, though not raised in the observation attributed to the UNICEF specialist, is the alert provided back in 2006 in a different assessment by the UN agency.