Dear Editor,

Louis E A Moyston is indeed correct. Improving the literacy rate at the primary level must be a priority — a real priority. Moyston’s letter to the editor, published in the Jamaica Observer on June 5, was spot on.

There are a few of us who not only believe that primary schools must be our priority, but we are also taking action to resolve the illiteracy and innumeracy problems — not dreaming or listening to the well-meaning with empty suggestions or the promises of others.

Three years ago, the Union of Jamaican Alumni Associations (USA) Inc (UJAA) began a partnership with Caribbean eBook Limited, which was founded by Joel Webbe, who is deeply committed to improving education for our primary school students. He developed Learnit®, a tablet with over 190 full-version, hands-on Learnit applications for grades one through six, which does not require the use of the internet. The literacy and numeracy applications have proven results for significantly improving these skills for our students.

The results were so strong, UJAA’s primary school alumni associations bought electronic tablets for their respective schools. UJAA then developed a programme with the initial goal of placing 10 tablets at, at least two schools in every parish in Jamaica. And since we already had tablets in seven parishes, we partnered with the Jamaica Teachers’ Association to identify two schools in the remaining seven parishes. We delivered them in late January and have been training the teachers to use them since then.

Our goal is to get Learnit into every primary school in Jamaica. We are not dreaming, we are acting. So if you want to do something, join us! We have hundreds of primary schools to go.

We can do this together!

Lesleyann Samuel

Union of Jamaican Alumni Associations (USA) Inc

lsamuel@ujaausa.org