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Kudos to Dr Davies and his team in South St AndrewTuesday, September 23, 2008
The literacy programme established in Dr Omar Davies' South St Andrew constituency is to be highly commended for its success so far, as well as for its intention to equip youngsters with the foundation to improve their lives.
According to Dr Davies, the Programmed Reading Intervention for Mainstreamed At Risk Youths (PRIMARY) project was implemented after he was provided with data from a research in his constituency showing that two-thirds of children there were at risk of growing up illiterate.
So, with the help of conceptualiser Ms Joan Spencer-Ernandez, herself an educator, the PRIMARY programme was, in 2000, implemented in five South St Andrew schools - Boys' Town All-Age, Iris Gelly Primary, Jones Town Primary, Trench Town Primary, and Central Branch All-Age.
Literature provided by Dr Davies showed that the programme's results have been very impressive so far. For instance, by June 2002, internal assessment results showed that students unable to read at level one had reduced from 58 per cent to 16 per cent; there was a 50 per cent increase in the number of students functioning at or above the grade three level; and there was significant improvement in the performance of students in the education ministry's grade four literacy test.
Over the first two years of the programme, students determined as Not At Risk moved from eight per cent to 41 per cent at Boys' Town All-Age; from 12 per cent to 31 per cent at Central Branch All-Age; from 28 per cent to 62 per cent at Iris Gelly Primary; and from 23 per cent to 41 per cent at Jones Town Primary.
These achievements are quite impressive and, more important, encouraging. For they give substance to our firm belief that access to opportunity can make a big difference in people's lives. And if anyone still doubted that, the story of young Mr Oshane Hamilton, a product of Dr Davies' programme, should erase their lack of faith.
Like many other youngsters from inner-city communities, Mr Hamilton had a tough time growing up, as his mother, the only parent he knows, was unemployed.
"Walking to and from school became fun because I had no choice but to walk," he was quoted in this week's Sunday's Observer. "But I decided that I wasn't going to let anything stop me from fulfilling my dreams. I knew that anything I put my mind to I can do it."
Mr Hamilton's fixity of purpose coupled with the opportunity provided by the PRIMARY programme resulted in him passing 10 subjects - six with distinction and four with credit - at the May/June sitting of the CXC exams this year.
One of the more heartening aspects of Mr Hamilton's story is his stated desire to pursue chemical engineering as a career because, he said, "the country needs more" people with that skill.
Mr Hamilton's story gives us hope for Jamaica's future. And we are even more encouraged by the fact that there are so many other students like him who have done well because of this programme.
Dr Davies, Ms Joan Spencer-Ernandez and the team of specialists from the Jamaica Association for Children With Learning Disabilities deserve the highest commendation for their drive and commitment to make positive changes in the lives of youngsters in South St Andrew.
If they haven't yet done so, the education ministry, we suggest, should engage Dr Davies and his team and assist them to realise their intention to spread the programme nationally.
Jamaica, we are sure, will be the better for it.
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