Kingston, Jamaica – 28 September 2010: After spending 18 years teaching Mathematics at the Secondary level, Ms. Cheryl Foreman, Vice-Principal of St. Joseph’s Teachers College, is excited to see a dream of hers come to life. “I’ve always been concerned about how innumerate our society is. With the opening of this new Enrichment Centre here at our school, we can better instruct our student-teachers on different ways and methods to teach Mathematics.”
“Digicel Foundation is proud to see the Enrichment Centre concept grow and develop. This is a new leg to the program as previously, we concentrated on getting the program into those schools that had serious literacy and numeracy problems to be addressed,” commented Executive Director of Digicel Foundation, Major General Robert Neish. “By integrating this curriculum into the Teachers College’s Diploma’s and Degree’s, many more teachers will have a wider understanding of how to incorporate untraditional teaching strategies to help our students who are under-performers, particularly in Mathematics,” he finished.
“The need for a Math Lab on property was crucial to ensuring that our student-teachers understood how to teach Mathematics effectively. When I learnt of the Enrichment Centre Initiative, I was fascinated and knew it was exactly what we need here,” shared Ms. Foreman. “Already our student-teachers have started to use the Room and they have already grown excited and appreciative of what it means to their own personal development.”
Digicel Foundation launched the Enrichment Centre Initiative, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, in 2009. Since then, 15 Enrichment Rooms, islandwide, have been completed and provides intensive treatment and assistance for students who under perform in literacy and numeracy. The Enrichment Room also challenges over-performers and so keeps them excited and motivated to learn.
About Enrichment Centres Under the Enrichment Centre Initiative, Digicel Foundation refurbishes and equips a room at the school 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. The schools are on the program include: New Hope Primary and Junior High, 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, Chapelton All Age, Windsor Castle All Age and Spanish Town Primary Schools that received two rooms (due to its large student population).