Jamaica’s national hero and pan-Africanist leader Marcus Garvey will have a place of prominence in the Jamaican school curriculum this coming academic year.

Education Minister, Reverend Ronald Thwaites, has revealed that the teachings of Garveyism and the subject of Civics will be officially introduced to the school curriculum during the 2012/13 academic year.

He explained that the Garveyism programme will be officially launched on August 17 at the Marcus Garvey Technical High School in St. Ann.

“We will launch the material which will comprise the module for Garvey studies as part of the Civics programme,” he told journalists during a press briefing recently at Jamaica House in Kingston.

Meanwhile, Thwaites said his ministry was pleased with the level of progress being made in back-to-school preparations for the upcoming school year, which begins on September 3.

He said the ministry had so far, successfully hosted four ‘Back-to-School’ conferences in Regions Three, Four, Five and Six over the last few weeks. The remaining two conferences in Regions One and Two will be held in the next three weeks.

The conferences encourage wide stakeholder participation and give participants the opportunity to have dialogue with the minister and other ministry representatives.

Reverend Thwaites said he was pleased with the level of participation in the conferences, which involved teachers, principals, school board chairmen, parents, and even members of the business and civic communities.

“The idea is to, not just go and tell them what’s happening, but to listen to them and to engage them fully in the enterprise of education, because the ministry and the teachers can’t do it alone, it requires full participation,” he said.

The minister also advised that quality education circle meetings are now being organised for the completion of the School Improvement Plans for each school