AN outpouring of support and advice from readers of Career & Education has encouraged 16-year-old St Ann resident Kwane Thomas to go to university or college in the next academic year.

The brilliant youngster from Eight Miles in the parish was featured last week for his performance in the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) exams in which he achieved nine subjects.

However, Thomas, who lives with his single mother and a younger sister, is not attending school at present, a situation that caused concern among readers.

At least eight persons wrote enquiring about the former Ferncourt High School student, with some promising to assist him with tuition or to put him in touch with persons and organisations that could help.

Career & Education has given Thomas’s contact details to these persons so that they can contact him directly by email.

“I feel good about it sir,” Thomas said about the expressions of support. He said his mother “appreciates all of what is happening now”.

Asked how he felt about his education plans since his story was published Thomas said: “I am going to seek a short course that I can do between now and September, and by then I will be enrolled in an institution.”

Thomas’s nine CSEC subjects include six at grade one and three at grade two.

However, like thousands of youngsters of low income in rural Jamaica, using the Internet for Thomas is a luxury.

He has to journey about five miles to Alexandria to check his email at an Internet café there. He says there is no Internet service nor land lines in his community.

Among the suggestions to Thomas was for him to get enrolled at the Northern Caribbean University where he could be a part of the work-study programme there.

Another reader suggested that he contact the Ministry of Education to find out about any grant programme for needy students.

Another reader recommended a book on “social apprenticeship”, which gives examples of students who are able to work their way through college by doing low-level jobs.

Other readers, both in Jamaica and overseas, said they would assist Thomas in any way they could.