FOUR SCHOOLS IN CLARENDON TO BENEFIT FROM NEW ENRICHMENT CENTRE

FOUR SCHOOLS IN CLARENDON TO BENEFIT FROM NEW ENRICHMENT CENTRE
Digicel Foundation refurbishes and equips new Enrichment Centre at Chapelton All Age School

Kingston, Jamaica – 23 June 2010: Chapelton All Age School, on Wednesday, June 23, 2010, opened their new Enrichment Centre, funded by Digicel Foundation. The new Centre will also service the John Austin All Age, Wood Hall All Age and Pindar’s Valley All Age Schools.
In the intimate town of Chapelton in Clarendon, the Chapelton All Age School has a population of over 800 children and operates on a shift system. Though often times forgotten in the, hustle and bustle of May Pen, with its flurry of businesses and popular schools, the school consistently strives to ensure that its literacy levels are on par and in keeping with the Ministry of Education’s 2015 goal.   “We tried numerous in-house programmes including hiring a Reading Specialist and hosting literacy workshops with the schools in our cluster in order to significantly improve on our dissatisfactory literacy rate of 53%,” said Principal of Chapelton All Age, Jeremiah Golding. “On writing the proposal to Digicel Foundation, we included the other schools since we are aware of their similar plight and have been working together to get the literacy and numeracy rates up. We are hoping to achieve 80% literacy over the next three years by maximizing the tools and strategies that the Enrichment Centre offers.”
The literacy rates of the other three schools are 43%, 62% and 76% for Pindar’s Valley, Wood Hall and John Austin All Age Schools, respectively.

Chapelton All Age School applied to the Digicel Foundation in February 2010, seeking to be a part of the Enrichment Centre Initiative that was launched in partnership with the Ministry of Education, in time for the new school year, last year.  “We are happy to see more schools coming on board with the initiative to address their literacy and numeracy problems, namely Windsor Castle All Age (Portland), which we opened in May and now Chapelton All Age School” shared Major General Robert Neish, Executive Director of Digicel Foundation. “With these new schools, we are also adding a new component to the initiative by involving ‘satellite schools’ that are in close proximity to the Centres and therefore maximizing and sharing, not only the infrastructure and equipment, but also the expertise and information to tackle this widespread problem of illiteracy.”   “We are so happy that Chapelton All Age has received this new Enrichment Centre,” commented Mrs. Direna Lewis, Principal of John Austin All Age School. “We are happy that our students will be more exposed to technology and that those students functioning below their grade levels will be given the special attention they need to get up to par with their classmates.”   Teachers from all four schools have undergone comprehensive training with Lead Trainer of the Enrichment Centre Initiative, Sandra Maxwell-Williams (Special Educator at Jessie Ripoll Primary School). “They have been trained in how to use the numerous manipulative tools and software in the room, how to handle any problems that may arise and how to practice good record-keeping techniques so that the success and progress of the students can be monitored,” commented Mrs. Maxwell-Williams.