WESTERN BUREAU — The Undergrad school in Montego Bay will host an education seminar and Christmas luncheon at the school next Thursday to recruit students for their new cost-free educational training programme set to get underway in late January.

The training programme is geared towards the youth and around Montego Bay’s low income communities who wish to be educated, but who lack the necessary financial resources. It is also geared towards young people who are in school, but who are nonetheless illiterate.

Principal of the Institution, Sylvester O’Gilvie told the Observer Thursday that the programme would see those who are not in school being privy to teaching in basic English, Mathematics and Computer Science, between 3:30 pm and 5:00 pm, from Mondays to Fridays at the Undergrad School. Those already in school, he added, would be taught between 10:00 am and 12:00 pm on weekends.

“Our objective is to ensure that at the end of the day these students’ lives are changed. We want them focusse in a positive direction,” O’Gilvie said.

“It might be extremely difficult working with some of them, but it’s our intention to see how best we can. We don’t want to give the impression that we are going to be performing miracles, but we are willing to work with those students who are willing to co-oporate with us.”

He added that the programme was not a one-shot exercise. In fact, he said that the Undergrad school would continue to work with those students who illustrate the ability, and who are interested in pursuing higher education.

“It’s not going to be a one-shot thing where we get them to read and write and then just leave them. We intend to work with them throughout their academic careers and to take them to the highest level academically,” he said.

The programme will also see participants being given at least one meal a day, and O’Gilvie has issued a plea for members of the public to assist with the provision of these meals.

“During the teaching process, it is also our intention to supply them with at least one meal. It makes no sense to take them off the streets and attempt to educate them while they are hungry. So we are appealing to the general public to assist us in providing (these) meals,” he said.

Next Thursday’s seminar, which will begin at 2:30 pm, will see O’Gilvie informing interested participants about the importance of the programme and what it entails.

Application forms for the programme will be issued to those interested. The forms will have a section that requires each applicant to write about him/herself, and if the applicant is unable to do so, he/she will be required to draw.

O’Gilvie said this exercise would allow programme directors the opportunity to assess the level of competency of each applicant, which will allow for more efficient streamlining.

Well-known Montego Bay personalities like Lloyd B Smith, managing director at the Western Mirror Newspaper, will also be present to offer words of encouragement.

Meanwhile, O’Gilvie said he and his management team had already begun to canvas low-income communities and the haunts of street children, such as the KFC along the city’s Howard Cooke Boulevard, to inform potential applicants and their parents about the programme. And he said they would continue to do so until next Thursday when the seminar and luncheon are scheduled to take place.

“Those who have heard of the programme are really enthused and looking forward to coming. The response has been tremendous (to date),” O’Gilvie said.

“The programme can accommodate a maximum of 50 students (but) even if we are able to educate only one or two students, that would be OK with us,” he added.

In 1999, the Undergrad School in Montego Bay opened its doors along Dome Street. It offers a wide range of subjects at the CXC and GCE “O” and “A” level subjects in the Arts, Business, and the Sciences to students wishing to pursue or repeat their CXC, GCE “O” and “A” levels.