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Digicel Foundation Opens Enrichment Room to Aid the School’s Literacy Goals
Kingston, Jamaica – 23 September 2010: The New Hope Primary and Junior High School is aiming for all its students to be functionally literate to prepare them for the world ahead. Making the task now a little easier on the teachers, the new Enrichment Room, donated by Digicel Foundation, in association with the Ministry of Education, officially opened on September 23, 2010. “We are ready for the hard work that is ahead with the hope of helping our students to achieve their full potential and unlock their ability to succeed, by empowering them to learn to read and write,” commented Principal Monica Foster.
According to Executive Director of Digicel Foundation, “We are committed to assisting schools with literacy and numeracy problems as we need to give all our children all the help and assistance they need to reach their fullest potential,” commented Major General Robert Neish. “This Enrichment Room, is one of thirteen completed across the island, and we are happy that we are able to officially open this Room in Westmoreland today.”
Teacher in the Enrichment Room, Mrs. Claudette Samuels, has been working with the students since January, but despite the challenges, she is determined to make the program work for the betterment of her students. “Last school term, we started working in the Room late. Nonetheless, we took in 74 students from Grades 3-5 in January and I have been applying my training to assist the students. Mrs. Samuels participated in an intensive three-month training program learning strategies on how to identify and treat each child’s area of weakness and to manipulate the various literacy and numeracy software and hardware in the room. This training was done by Lead Trainer on the Enrichment Centre Initiative, Sandra Maxwell-Williams as well as representatives of the three main streams of the Ministry of Education (Literacy, Numeracy and Special Education).
About the Enrichment Centre
New Hope’s Enrichment Room is one of 13 such facilities under the Enrichment Centre Initiative that was refurbished and equipped with laptops, computers, literacy and numeracy software such as Hooked on Phonics, Early Success, Math Manipulative Audio-Visual Headsets, TV and DVD Players, among other equipment. This was done by the Digicel Foundation in partnership with the Ministry of Education. The other schools that are benefitting from the Initiative are Waterford Primary, Lyssons Primary, Franklin Town Primary, Balaclava Primary, Victoria Town Primary, Cave Hill Primary, Drapers All Age, Melrose Primary and Junior High, Moneague Primary and Junior High, St. Ann’s Bay Primary and Spanish Town Primary School that received two rooms (due to its large student population).
