FRANKLIN Town Primary School received a needed boost to its image last Wednesday, as the Digicel Foundation, in partnership with the Ministry of Education, handed over its completed Enrichment Room.

Fully refurbished and equipped by Digicel Foundation, the Enrichment Room provides the opportunity for the school to seriously tackle the literacy problems its students face.

“The Digicel Foundation was happy to assist the Franklin Town Primary in addressing the literacy problems of their students. The school was identified by our partner, the Ministry of Education, as a school that was not only struggling with their literacy rates on the Grade 4 tests, but also had the ability to improve, if given the right resources,” noted Major General Robert Neish, executive director of the Digicel Foundation.

Located on Victoria Street in Kingston, Franklin Town Primary caters to approximately 380 students and shares its property with a Special Education Unit operated by the School of Hope. Due to the presence of the School of Hope on the same property, there is a stigma that the school is primarily for students with mental or learning.

“The Enrichment Room will seek to positively challenge the kids in a more interactive and stimulating way and help improve the school’s literacy and numeracy levels,” said a release from the Digicel Foundation. “It also brings a burst of technology to the school, as prior to this there were no computers available at the school. The school also faces a behavioural challenge, particularly with the boys that are non-readers, who tend to distract and taunt the other students who are piped for learning.”

“I am excited that the students will have an opportunity to access the facility and the priceless resources in the room to their own betterment,” said teacher Melissa Roberts, who is trained to operate the Enrichment Room. “Eventually, we want to host reading classes for persons from the community to come into the Enrichment Room and benefit as well.”

She participated in an extensive three-month training programme, involving representatives of the three mainstreams of the Ministry of Education – literacy, numeracy and special education. Special educator at Jessie Ripoll Primary School, Sandra Maxwell-Williams, also participated in the training, which equipped them with strategies for identifying and treating each child’s area of weakness and using the literacy and numeracy software and hardware.

“The Enrichment Centre Initiative is tailored to meet both the needs of under-achievers, reading below their grade levels, and over-achievers, who require more educational challenges that are not presented in the normal classroom context,” noted Enrichment Initiative co-ordinator, Dr Michele Meredith-Dobbs, also of the Education Transformation Project in the Ministry of Education.

The Enrichment Room at Franklin Town Primary is one of 13 such facilities that have been refurbished. The rooms are equipped with Information Communication technologies such as laptops, computers, literacy and numeracy software such as Hooked on Phonics, Early Success, and Master Reader, Hooked on Math, Math Manipulative Audio-Visual Headsets, TV sets, DVD players, among others.