KINGSTON (JIS) -- Several teachers and education officials are lauding the Education Partnership for Improved Reading Outcomes, for equipping the education system with the tools for steady progress in literacy. Under the three-year project, which ended in March, the Education Ministry, in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), provided capacity building and technical assistance to the National Literacy Programme, implemented in 2010, through a comprehensive reading programme in 450 schools. It provided ninety Reading Coaches in all 450 schools in the first year; and provided support in literacy strategies to teachers at Grades 1-3, enabling them to more effectively support the students in the system, reaching over 100,000 students.
“It is an awesome programme. Not only did Grades 1-3 benefit, but also Grade 4,” says Principal of the St. Andrew based Cockburn Gardens Primary and Junior High School, Patricia Findlay, in an interview with JIS News.
She adds that her school was able to employ a Reading Coach who received a top award for outstanding work on the project, while another teacher at the institution was able to get valuable experience from it. “I expect our grades to go up, and we will do better in the future,” she says.
Teacher at Port Henderson Primary School, in St. Catherine, Andréa Bryan, says the experience was insightful. “I learnt many strategies to help our children, and also to work with other teachers,” she tells