Enrichment Room to boost reading, maths

Whitehouse, Westmoreland:

A new Enrichment Room established at a cost of $6.1 million and designed as a reading and mathematics resource centre to boost students' learning at the New Hope Primary and Junior High School, Whitehouse, Westmoreland was officially opened last Thursday.

The facility, which was established through the joint efforts of the Ministry of Education and the Digicel Foundation, is expected to benefit the student population of approximately 1,030.

The learning facility, the third completed of 12 being established islandwide, was designed and equipped with human and technological resources, to ensure whatever intervention is done is of the highest quality. There are eight computers, inclusive of three laptops, a multimedia projector, mini interactive board and television/ DVD, as well as related instruments and teaching gadgets in the Enrichment Room.

Specialised classes

According to the principal, Monica Foster, students in grades three to six have already been scheduled to begin specialised classes, ensuring they receive moderate-to-intensive remediation in reading and mathematics.

She said that the Enrichment Room was a "dream come true" for the school community.

"I want to express heartfelt thanks to these, our partners, and pledge, as teachers, that we will use the facility to the max," she said.

She assured that the entire community would care and protect the centre, and will not allow any child to fall through the cracks.

Education Officer Leonie Dunwell read an address from enrichment initiative coordinator in the Education Transformation Project of the Ministry of Education, Dr Michele Meredith, stating that students identified as reading below their age and grade levels must be given every chance to master the difficulty.

"Teachers in the enrichment centres are given additional skills to help them work with children in the programme but, in order to succeed, there is need for the involvement of home and school, in partnership, to ensure that each child gets the necessary help to improve," she said.

She said that at the end of the first year of the programme, the ministry is already seeing significant progress in reading skills for students placed in the centres.

- JIS

'I want to express heartfelt thanks to these, our partners, and pledge, as teachers, that we will use the facility to the max.'