A lifeline has been thrown to 122 students in St Thomas who have been disengaged amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Jamaica Council of Churches (JCC) is partnering with the Ministry of Education, Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA) and some local churches to facilitate special training for these students, some of whom have been out of school since last year March.

At Monday’s virtual launch of the programme, dubbed “Team Education Initiate”, guided by the motto “Reaching Beyond to Educate You”, the church said the students will be assigned training coaches and given additional resources to make up for the time they have been out of school.

Speaking at the event, president of the JCC Rev Newton Dixon said the idea came about in October of last year when the council identified major issues plaguing the education sector.

“The pandemic has unearthed some dysfunctions; we’re talking about things like the disparities in how we treat rural and urban communities. The dysfunction of how we have gender biases [as well as] issues like poverty, and how we distribute wealth, resources and access to resources. We feel it is important to us as the church to catch every single child to stop them from slipping beneath the cracks, falling off the radar and falling into lives of risk,” Dixon said.

“It’s our need to serve that led us to that reflection. Shortly thereafter, we were approached by Senator Damian Crawford who proposed that something has to be done in reaching those students who have problems, especially in the rural area. We sat down and started to explore what it is that could be done and what we came up with is a plan to address 122 students who have been displaced by the pandemic in rural communities in St Thomas.”

Among the communities where the children were said to be out of regular classes are: Woburn Lawn, Hagley Gap, Richmond Gap, Richmond Vale, Bethel Gap, Mount Lebanus and Penlyne Castle.

Added Dixon: “These are all deep rural communities in the hills of St Thomas, where the lack of access to Internet and the rugged terrain producing a challenge to transportation has created a situation where these students are in a disadvantaged position.

“We are particularly pleased and blessed to have these persons enthusiastically joining hands. The training coaches are competent volunteers we recruited from churches and from the various communities. They are tertiary-level students, one or two retired teachers, and so forth. They are supervised by teachers and principals in schools. There are four tiers… the learning coaches, teachers, principals and the regional officer,” Dixon said.

Some teachers in rural Jamaica have been calling for connectivity issues to be rectified, as they have not been able to connect online with many students.

Last September, Minister of Education Fayval Williams, in an effort to cushion the fallout of the education sector, announced three new approaches that were designed for the new school year.

These are virtual classes, providing printed materials to drop-off points, and utilising cable, where TVJ and CVM dedicate 24-hour channels to facilitate teaching.

The ministry had also pointed to a growing demand for the establishment of home-schools, as more parents or guardians are taking on the task of educating their children in the familiar controlled setting of the home

In addition, literary specialist at the Ministry of Education Opal Euter-Wilson said the initiative needed to assist vulnerable students.

“I am delighted to be a part of this very important launch. The region two literacy team applauds the JCC, the business community, and other stakeholders, for opening their hearts to the needs of the students in St Thomas. COVID-19 has disrupted the flow of the education system and this has made it really difficult for students to access the learning opportunities offered by the various modalities. Now this is the opportune time for every entity, organisation and individual to join forces, to build, strengthen and extend our capacity to meet the educational needs of our students,” Euter-Wilson said.

Further, a nod to the teachings of the Bible, Dixon said the initiative is “child-centred.”

“It’s really targeting the children, not only with respect to the issue of food security, but in respect to this issue of education. We believe they [children] suffer the earliest and the longest and the impact on them is deepest. The gospels tell us that Jesus placed priority on children. It is important for us to understand from the scriptures, that children are critically important,” Dixon said.