SEVENTY principals and teachers from 35 primary schools in Manchester, Clarendon, Portland, St Elizabeth and St Catherine have received training on how to use information communication technology (ICT) equipment as part of an enrichment programme in a partnership between the Digicel Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Carried out in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, the training programme was expected to arm teachers with specific skills to improve students’ performance in literacy and numeracy. The 35 underperforming primary schools participating in the training programme represent the second batch of institutions being engaged. Over 11,000 students currently enrolled in these schools will benefit from the resources and teaching strategies being provided.

Dr Andre Hill, national literacy co-ordinator in the Ministry of Education, noted the improvements recorded within the first batch of schools to implement the programme.

“The feedback from the literacy officers working with the 31 schools from the first group is that the interventions have significantly impacted the advancement of reading. The results from the Grade Four Literacy Test have also reflected an improvement in the literacy rates from these schools.”

Tajna Pryce, mathematics specialist, Region 5, said teachers need a lot of support, especially from rural schools where they may not necessarily have regular access to the learning resources provided by Digicel Foundation.

“Also, they may not know how to effectively use them,” she said.

“Training sessions like these that offer ongoing teacher development opportunities are critical to addressing systemic issues.”

The third and final batch of 29 schools will be identified to achieve a total of 95 schools under the extended partnership with Digicel Foundation and USAID.

Samantha Chantrelle, CEO of the Digicel Foundation, said it is only through collaboration that we can continue to achieve more as a country.

“The Digicel Foundation remains confident that we can attain extraordinary results in education if we pool our resources and ideas,” she said.