German Embassy supports basic school reading initiative
published: Tuesday | December 10, 2002
RECENTLY, LOLA Ramocan, Board member of educational NGO, Chichibud Ltd., presented 80 reading corners to basic schools in Kingston and St. Andrew as a result of a $350,000JD grant from the German Embassy. At the handing over ceremony at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Culture's early childhood unit, attended by the German Councillor from the German Embassy, Mr. Fleck Chetlain, Senior Education Officers and Ministry of Education officials, a reading corner consisting of large floor pillows, a layer of linoleum, a reading tips handout and a book bucket filled with 30 different storybooks was set up to demonstrate that an inexpensive, attractive, clean and comfortable environment can be created for our children to relax, read and be read to in the confines of the classroom.
For poor readers in this country, the biggest obstacle may very well be the lack of books. Consider the following from a US based study: "If daily reading begins in infancy, by the time the child is 5 years old, he or she has been fed roughly with 900 hours of brain food. Reduce that experience to just 30 minutes per week and the child's hungry mind loses 770 hours of nursery rhymes, fairy tales and stories." No teacher, no matter how talented, can make up for those lost hours of mental nourishment.
These reading corners involved the distribution of close to 2,500 books and serve as an expansion of Chichibud's two-year-old 'Read Jamaica' initiative. To date close to 200 such reading corners have been distributed. In addition, 'Read Jamaica', also sees Chichibud partnering with the Jamaica Urban Transit Corporation (JUTC), the Friends of the Jamaica Library Service and Novelty Trading Company to send children from Corporate Area children's homes to Saturday storytime every 3rd Saturday of each month at the Tom Redcam Library.
Future plans for Chichibud's 'Read Jamaica' involve a Reading Workshop for basic school teachers in association with the MOEYC and Banks St. College - a leader in teacher education in the US. This should be held in 2003 at which point, an evaluation is expected to take place.
