Eight Jamaican High Schools to Pilot MapMakers Programme as GIS Enters the Classroom

The Esri and National Geographic Society collaboration will equip geography teachers with digital mapping tools as Jamaica expands the use of geographic information systems in education and national development.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Eight Jamaican high schools are set to pilot the MapMakers programme, a global initiative designed to modernise geography education by giving teachers and students greater access to geographic information system technology.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced the pilot during the opening of the two-day Spatial ArcGIS User Conference at the AC Marriott Hotel in Kingston on September 29.

Bringing 21st-Century Geography Into Schools

“MapMakers is a global collaboration between Esri and the National Geographic Society to modernise the teaching of geography in our schools and universities,” Holness said. “The pilot will begin in eight high schools and will equip geography teachers with the tools they need to teach geography to a 21st century standard.”

The initiative will be driven regionally by Spatial Innovation and delivered in Jamaica through the Government’s Geographic Information Systems in Schools Education Programme.

The eight participating high schools were not identified in the JIS report reviewed by Vision Newspaper.

GIS as National Infrastructure

Holness used the announcement to make a broader case for geographic data as part of Jamaica’s national infrastructure.

“When the storm came, it was the investment in the data gathering, data storing, and data analysis of our geography that made us make sense of everything else,” he said.

GIS allows users to capture, manage, analyse and visualise information connected to geographic locations. Its applications can extend from education and land-use planning to infrastructure, disaster management and public services.

AI and Predictive Analysis Shape the Next Phase

Spatial Innovation CEO and Chairman Dr. Silburn Clarke told the conference that GIS has evolved over the past 28 years from a specialised field into a technology supporting decision-making across government agencies and other organisations.

Clarke said artificial intelligence, real-time information and predictive analysis are expected to play an increasingly important role in the future of GIS, allowing users to identify patterns and anticipate events.

He nevertheless stressed that people will remain central to how the technology develops and is applied.

“The main driver of the changes that we will be experiencing in the future will be from you guys,” Clarke told participants.

Building Skills for a Data-Driven Jamaica

The MapMakers pilot creates a direct connection between those wider technological developments and the classroom.

By equipping geography teachers with modern mapping tools, the programme is intended to expose students to a form of geographic analysis increasingly used in planning, environmental management, infrastructure and other data-driven fields.

Clarke encouraged conference participants to share experiences, challenge conventional thinking and collaborate on solutions to problems facing Jamaica and the wider Caribbean.

For the eight pilot schools, MapMakers represents an effort to move geography education beyond traditional maps and textbooks toward digital tools that can help students understand how location-based data is used to interpret and respond to real-world challenges.

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