Maria Willis: An Extraordinary Journey

Books are houses of knowledge and windows to the world. They allow us to expand our minds beyond the known and experience the unimaginable. For Maria Willis, a student entering Grade two at Waterford Primary, this was not the case. At age six, Maria was unable to read. Now a confident Grade three student, Maria’s bursting enthusiasm for reading is tempered solely by her quiet demeanour. Reading specialist at Waterford Primary, Jasneth Myers, recounts that Maria was assessed upon entering Grade two and found to be a non-reader. This means she was unable to identify the letters needed to spell her name. Maria has since made remarkable progress with the assistance of the Enrichment Centre established at her school by the Digicel Foundation. Mrs. Myers states that, “Maria has displayed such remarkable progress in a short space of time. She is now reading two levels above her Grade level!” The Enrichment Programme is a literacy initiative implemented by the Digicel Foundation and the Ministry of Education. It aims to increase the level of individualised instruction available to students between Grades one and three who are experiencing difficulties in reading. As with Waterford Primary, schools are equipped with reading and writing resources to improve the standards of teaching delivery and student engagement. Maria recalled some of the activities she enjoyed most during her daily 40 minute sessions in the Enrichment Centre. “I liked playing games on the computers, learning words and spelling,” she said. Mrs. Myers noted that, “She was very withdrawn at the start of the programme and did not display high self-esteem.” However, once Maria’s reading progress improved, so did her confidence in interacting with her classmates and participating in the weekly class spelling quiz. “Every Monday she would just be raring to go because she knew she would do well and that her name would make it on the chart for top performance,” noted Mrs. Myers. Maria’s grandmother, Marlene Lazarus, remembers being absolutely “shocked” when she turned up at the school’s internal ‘Spelling Bee’ competition. She watched as Maria out-spelled all her peers and went on to cop the title of Spelling Champion for Waterford Primary. “Now she is reading everything! If we walking on the road she reading the signs or if she gets a letter from school she start reading it to me!” Ms. Lazurus shared. The progress made by her granddaughter has left Ms. Lazarus heaping words of thanks and praise to the teachers at Waterford Primary and Digicel Foundation. “I know that the sky is the limit for Maria because she believes that she now can achieve anything she puts her mind to,” Ms. Lazarus remarked. At age seven, Maria is already quite sure of what she wants to be when she grows up. “I want to become a teacher, because they help children,” claimed Maria. With continued efforts to improve the country’s literacy rates, Maria Willis remains an extraordinary example of what can be achieved by all of Jamaica’s children if afforded adequate resources and support from those around them.