“MUSIC SHOULD BE A PART OF THE EARLY CURRICULUM IN JAMAICA’S PRIMARY SCHOOLS” SAYS DR. CAROLYN COOPER!

BY HOWARD CAMPBELL—

Top: Show promoter and entertainer Capleton (right) shares a photo opportunity with Bobby Montague, national security minister, at A St Mary Mi Come From launch in Kingston on Tuesday.

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Guest speaker Dr Carolyn Cooper, professor of literary and cultural studies at The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, addressing the audience at Tuesday’s launch of A St Mary Mi Come From, held at Courtney Walsh Drive in St Andrew. (Lionel Rookwood)—

UNIVERSITY of the West Indies (UWI) academic Dr Carolyn Cooper is calling for a reggae format in Jamaica’s primary schools, following an embarrassing double gaffe this month in Television Jamaica’s Junior Schools’ Challenge Quiz.

To the question, “In which Caribbean country did reggae music originate?”, a member of one team incorrectly responded, “Trinidad and Tobago”.

When the same question was posed to the rival team, they said Barbados, which is also inaccurate.

“I still feel it for those poor students. Our sense of national pride is at stake…the Ministry of Education has let them down,” Cooper told the audience at Tuesday’s launch of A St Mary Mi Come From show. She added: “Jamaican culture should be on the school curriculum.”

Cooper, a professor of literary and cultural studies at The UWI, was keynote speaker at the event at Courtney Walsh Drive in Kingston.

It marked the official return of A St Mary Mi Come From, a charity event initiated in 2000 by deejay Capleton to assist educational and health institutions in his home parish.

The show, last held in 2012, will be held August 5 at Gray’s Inn Sports Complex in Annotto Bay, St Mary.

Given the high negatives associated with dancehall music, Cooper lauded Capleton as “an artist who has supported positivity and we have to big him up. A lot of us forget where we come from”.

Capleton and his proteges Furious, Mortimer and Sativa gave brief performances. All will be on A St Mary Mi Come From, which will also include Barrington Levy, Cocoa Tea, Ninja Man, I-Octane, Busy Signal, Chezidek, Romain Virgo, and Yvad.

A number of institutions in St Mary, St Ann, Portland and St Andrew have benefited from A St Mary Mi Come from, including the Port Maria Hospital, Islington High School (Capleton’s alma mater), Annotto Bay Hospital, Oberlin High School, and Haile Selassie High School.

BY HOWARD CAMPBELL—

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