THE Mutual Building Societies Foundation (MBSF) recently joined forces with Food for the Poor to open a new Integrated Science laboratory at Mile Gully High School in north Manchester.

“We have been seeing improvements in the sciences although the grades are not where we want them to be,” John Clarke, acting school principal told the audience in a brief ceremony before the ribbon cutting. “We expect that their performance will be better now that we have a lab.”

The new lab is equipped with microscopes, Bunsen burners and a multi-media projector, which displays the Virtual Lab computer software — a programme that demonstrates lab experiments step-by-step, through a virtual reality video.

According to literature circulated at the ceremony, the national average pass rate for students doing the sciences was 62.1 per cent in 2009, only a three per cent improvement on the previous year. But head of the Mile Gully science department Mark Clarke said the new lab facilitates almost all styles of learning which he says can contribute to a higher pass rate.

“Many people recognise that each person prefers different learning styles and with the recent upsurge in the computer environment we need to cater to this form of learning,” Clarke said. “In total, there are seven learning styles and I can assure you that we have targeted six in our newly improved science lab.”

The opening of the new lab makes Mile Gully High one of six schools across the island to benefit from the Centres of Excellence programme established by the MSBF.

Centres of Excellence project co-ordinator, Llewelyn Bailey said the programme focuses on ensuring that schools under the project have “functioning labs and equipment to adequately complete school-based assessments and other tasks set out in the CXC syllabus and school curriculum”.

The MSBF is a joint initiative between the Jamaica National Building Society and the Victoria Mutual Building Society.

In commending Food for the Poor for partnering with the MSBF by donating some of the equipment for the lab, Bailey called on other organisations to “come on board to support this meaningful venture to strengthen the high school system”.

Other schools to benefit from the Centres of Excellence programme:

* McGrath High in St Catherine;

* Seaforth High in St Thomas;

* Green Pond High in St James; and

* Porus High in Manchester.

Godfrey Stewart High in Westmoreland has also benefitted.