Despite its vast population, it is 38th in the international league table of countries sending students to the UK, below much smaller countries such as Kuwait and Jordan.
"Jamaica is now ranked number one in the medal table and that's not bad for a country with a population around the same size as that of the west Midlands, " said the BBC's Nick Davis in Kingston, Jamaica.
Primary and preventative health care alternatives are often inadequate or inaccessible to a population where even an hour of missed income can mean the difference between food on the table or not.