The Phillip and Christine Gore Family Foundation has expanded its remedial literacy and numeracy programme into two new schools, Denham Town High and Jones Town Primary.

It brings the total cost of the remedial programme, which now impacts close to 300 students, to approximately J$5 million annually, the foundation said in a press release.

This cost includes: the installation of Starlink internet at each of these schools, a 12 month license for the remedial programme, and a programme coordinator who is essential to have on the ground to oversee the running of the programme, the release stated.

According to the release, the remedial programme is computer-based and first tests each student before designing a specific lesson plan to help them to get up to their grade level in Mathematics and English.

Both Denham Town High and Jones Town Primary schools were among the institutions listed in a 2012 study conducted by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) titled ‘Education and Crime : Evidence from Prison Inmates in Jamaica.’

The report from JCF found that there is “overwhelming evidence to infer with a high degree of confidence that at least seven out of every 10 inmates in our adult prisons has had some association with a non-traditional high school.”

Denham Town High was one of 14 non-traditional high schools and Jones Town Primary was one of two primary schools listed in the report, which featured the 18 schools most frequently named as being attended in a sample consisting of 894 prison inmates.

Christine Gore, Executive Director of the Gore Family Foundation, commented, “We cannot turn our backs on the results of this study. In order to have an impact on the worsening crime problem in Jamaica we must address the country’s broken education system. In doing this, we should start with focusing in on the schools listed in this study.”

The Gore Family Foundation continues to manage 10 basic schools in the Kingston area, run life skills
programmes at Jamaica College and Alpha and has existing remedial programmes with Charlie Smith High School and the Rose Town Foundation for children from the Rose Town community.

The Gore Family Foundation also continues to increase its scholarships at the tertiary level in response to the growing need of University students. This year, the Foundation increased its scholarships at UTech, the Gore Developments Limited Scholarship for students studying Construction Management and the E Nadine Isaacs Memorial Scholarship for students studying Architecture by 10 per cent to $2,640,000 per year.

The Foundation also doubled its Lisa Gore Seifart Memorial Scholarship from US$5,000 to US$10,000 per year for students pursuing degrees in Psychology or related disciplines.

The Gore Family Foundation said it will continue to do everything that it can to improve the educational opportunities and life chances of as many Jamaicans as possible and strongly encourages others to also play their part in doing the same.