Sandals sponsors reading specialist at Flankers
SANDALS Montego Bay is assisting the Flankers Primary and Junior High School to arrest and reverse a reading problem at the school.
On World Literacy Day, September 8, the resort’s general manager, Horace Peterkin, announced his resort’s intention to sponsor a specialist reading teacher. It will be this teacher’s sole responsibility to help slow readers read, and to teach non-readers to read. According to the school’s administration, almost a third of the students reach the end of their schooling without being able to read and write.
Peterkin made his announcement at Readathon 2001, a reading fair staged by the hotel in conjunction with the Flankers Citizens Association. The objective of the fair was to promote reading as a past time activity for children aged six to 16. The event also served as a launching pad for a sustained reading programme at the school.
The reading fair comprised several components including reading assessments by dyslexia specialist Rosie Thomas Palmer, as well as master teacher of reading, Joyce Green.
The team assessed more than 30 persons, while the reading competition garnered over 100 entries in four age categories. The start of a mentorship programme and story corner, were also a part of the day’s event.
In the keynote address, 1998 Scripps Howard Spelling Bee Champion, Jody-Ann Maxwell, lamented the fact that many children have missed the fun of reading because of the plethora of entertainment such as the television, cable and the Internet. The Internet, she said, encourages students to acquire information with little or no effort.
“Projects are not as nice as they used to be,” she said.
Maxwell told the more than 400 students present that reading was not only the gateway to education but also one of the ladders to academic achievement.
“We cannot go through the educational system without learning to reading,” she said.
Maxwell also told the students gathered that reading is important for many reasons such as allowing persons to access simple information, which in some instances could save their lives.
