KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — The Government’s adult education programme is being hailed by several beneficiaries for enabling them to excel in their chosen endeavour.

Administered by the Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning (JFLL), the programme offers individuals who, for whatever reason, underachieved while attending high school, or did not get the opportunity to attend a secondary institution.

Two of those past students benefitting significantly are: Cleopatra Francis and Joan Ellis-McCormack.

Francis is currently a Field Officer at the JFLL’s St Thomas parish office in Morant Bay, while Ellis-McCormack is a Bio Medical Technician at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay.

Ellis-McCormack recently completed the Associate of Science Degree (ASc.), majoring in Engineering Technology, at the Montego Bay Community College.

Both women speak glowingly of how the adult education programme helped them to reposition their lives, after initially encountering challenges.

Francis native of St Thomas, who has worked with the JFLL since 1995, tells JIS News that she received her formative education at Chapel Hill Basic School in Port Morant, and then Port Morant All Age School.

She says that at age 14, she was enrolled at the then Stokes Hall Secondary School, now St Thomas Technical High School, entering the institution at Grade Nine, and successfully completed one year at that level.

Her secondary education was, however, cut short in Grade 10, as after completing two months, she was forced to discontinue her studies, “because of financial difficulties.”

“My mother was a single parent, and I had a younger sibling, a brother, who at the time, had just passed his Common Entrance Examinations. So, I had to stop going to school and had to find a job to assist in maintaining the household. I did domestic work, and I also had to use the money I earned to assist my brother, after he started going to Happy Grove High School, in Portland,” she explains.

Not contented to remain a domestic worker, and determined to advance her education and life, Francis says after relocating to the St Thomas capital, Morant Bay, in 1991, she started attending night classes offered by the then Jamaican Movement for the Advancement of Literacy (JAMAL) Foundation, at Saunders Basic School, located opposite her home.

“My literacy level was discouragingly low. But I had the passion and ambition that I wanted to get some subjects, because I did not want to remain at the level I was at. I heard about the JAMAL programme from friends of mine, inquired further about it…and started attending classes thereafter,” she says.

Francis says she began at Level Two, where “they were just doing basic literacy,” and within one year, she advanced to Lever Four, at which point the programme was offering English Language, Mathematics, Social Studies, General Studies, and Current Affairs.

In 1992, after completing Level Four, Francis secured three scholarships, valued approximately $7,000, among other prizes, which she was awarded after successfully contesting the JAMAL quiz competition. This she contested at the parish level for St Thomas, where she emerged champion, and at the national level, where she was the overall winner.

“I used that money to enroll in classes at the Seaforth Evening Institute, to do my Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) subjects,” she says.

Francis says this engagement spanned four years, 1994 to 1998, as a result of irregular attendance, due mainly to work. She adds, however, that having persevered, she secured six subjects, with grades ranging from distinction to pass. These include: English Language, Mathematics, Principles of Accounts, Principles of Business, Social Studies, and Office Procedures (now Office Administration).

Francis describes aspects of this course of study as “challenging,” citing Mathematics as the main subject posing some degree of difficulty for her.

“The other subjects were okay. But for Mathematics, I had to do it four times before I was successful,” she informs.

She now encourages people who might not have had an opportunity to secure a secondary education, or who did not make the most of the one they had while attending high school, to “come and see what we have to offer at the JFLL.”