Fifth graders in Jamaica will run businesses through the Junior Achievement Biztown program, a first in the Caribbean and Latin America. (Photo Credit: Google Images)
Fifth graders in Jamaica will run businesses through the Junior Achievement Biztown program, a first in the Caribbean and Latin America. (Photo Credit: Google Images)

Karim Smith of the Jamaica Observer is reporting that Jamaica will have a Junior Achievement Biztown (JA Biztown), a model business town in which 5th graders  will be allowed to run their own businesses while learning the basics of financial responsibility.

Smith reports:

“The aim of the project is to get 10,000 students across the island at Grade 5 level to participate and discover practical life skills that they can take with them for life. By participating, students will get a taste of the real world,” said Allison Peart, president of the Rotary Club of Kingston.

“In North America there are successful companies that have been started before getting to grade five and I don’t see why that couldn’t happen in Jamaica,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

This program focuses on 5th graders, but Junior Achievement has other programs for children in other grades.

Jamaica is the first country in the Caribbean and Latin America to have a Junior Achievement Biztown.

Read more at Jamaica Observer.

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