STUDENTS of several inner-city communities preparing for the Grade Four Literacy Test (GFLT) and the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) have shown significant improvement after attending special classes put on by the non-governmental organisation RISE Life Management Services.

Shawn McGregor, project manager and senior youth trainer at RISE, said 76 per cent of students in the intervention programme achieved mastery in the GFLT in June last year.

“These children are coming to us at low education levels. They are in grade four but some were reading at the grade one level,” McGregor said of the students who reside in the communities of Parade Gardens, Allman Town and Fletcher’s Land in Central Kingston and downtown Kingston.

Addressing yesterday’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange at the newspaper’s head offices on Beechwood Avenue in Kingston, McGregor said about 150 children were prepared for this year’s GSAT. He said the students also benefited from life skills education, counselling, field trips, and summer camps.

The life skills programme includes “leadership, conflict resolution and communication skills to help build their self-confidence so they can perform better in school”, he said.

Also critical to the success of RISE Life’s education programme is the ability to offer a meal to the children every afternoon, according to McGregor. “The reality is, some of these children do not have breakfast in the morning, they do not have lunch and some do not go home to dinner in the nights,” he explained.

Executive director of RISE Sonita Morin-Abrahams said the NGO has also involved the parents of the children in its adult literacy and other classes. This, she said, has empowered the parents to support their children attending the classes.

Morin-Abrahams had high praises for McGregor who has emerged as a leader and mentor at RISE after first coming to the organisation as a 12-year-old to work as an extra in a commercial.

“One of the things RISE does is to recognise potential in young people and bring them in to mentor them. Now he is mentoring hundreds of young people,” she stated proudly.

Alex Newman, a 17-year-old student of Kingston Technical High and mentor at RISE, said the ratio of five students to one tutor at RISE contributes to the success of the classes.