Holness urges support for enrichment centres
EDUCATION Minister Andrew Holness has urged private sector support for enrichment centres — upgraded primary school classrooms that feature technologies designed to boost literacy and numeracy among students — across the island.
“I’m using this platform to appeal to other good corporate citizens to come on board. This is not a very expensive venture. The cost (to operate) is very reasonable, but the return on the investment is so great it impacts on branding,” Holness said.
The minister was speaking at Thursday’s launch of the Digicel Foundation Enrichment School of the Year Competition. The competition, launched at the ministry’s head office in downtown Kingston, will run over the course of one year and targets the 22 schools that currently form a part of Digicel’s enrichment centre initiative.
“We would like to see this (the introduction of enrichment centres) in all our primary schools. Sadly, we don’t have the budget just yet to do that and we are thankful that Digicel is helping us,” Holness said.
He added that already the ministry has identified schools that are capable of becoming enrichment centres, however corporate sponsors are needed to fund them.
Digicel’s commitment has evolved from refurbishing classrooms, offering educational equipment, gadgets and enrichment carts to the 22 primary schools they sponsor, to now hosting the Digicel Foundation Enrichment School of the Year Competition.
“The competition was created to keep the momentum of Digicel’s enrichment programme. We want to ensure that the goal of eliminating illiteracy by 2015 is achieved,” said Lisa Lewis, chairperson for the Digicel Foundation. “This competition will not only give these enrichment centres a chance to shine and significantly increase the capabilities of students who are performing below average in numeracy and literacy, but it also integrates key shareholders, such as parents, students, the Ministry of Education and other private sectors.”
Judging for the competition, which kicks off at the start of the new academic year, will be done in two segments — the evaluation and assessment segment and the judging panel segment — the results of which will determine the overall winning school. The judging will take account of the improvements in student as well as teacher performance, as well as parental involvement in the students’ academic and school life.
Award categories will include Best Performing School, Most Improved School in Literacy, Top Teacher, Top Parent, and Top Student, among other sectional prizes. The Best Performing School in the competition will receive a winning trophy and a cash award to the tune of $460,000 to help finance an ‘away-day’ for students, a school project plan and gift certificates for the purchase of educational material.
In September 2009, the Digicel Foundation collaborated with the education ministry to launch the enrichment centre initiative in 12 primary schools across the island. Digicel has since expanded the programme to 22 primary schools, which sees more than 2,500 individuals benefiting.
For schools to be eligible for an enrichment centre, they should identify a room on the school’s compound that either Digicel or another private organisation can refurbish.
“I wish to thank Digicel for their support and the commitment that they have shown, not just for literacy, but generally for our infrastructure development,” Holness said.