By Trudy Simpson, Staff ReporterMUSICIAN WAYNE "Jolly Vibes" Channer no longer has to be embarrassed by the fact that he cannot read fluently and write, thanks to the Restoration Christian School, Operation Restoration Centre in Trench Town, South St. Andrew.
The 20-year-old musician said that he used to feel embarrassed about wanting to record a song, but being unable to write the words. "After a while me tell myself sey that mi ah go read and write my song dem," he said.
Since then, things have changed and now, two years later, he is overjoyed that he can read and write the lyrics of his songs.
"Now I know how to break up the words (and) pronounce dem-like Gleaner. Reading really good for us. I'd a like to continue. If mi can go some big school weh can big me up on a nicer level, I'd appreciate it," he explained. He says that he still reads as much as possible to learn new words than can help him in his deejaying and remind him how to pronounce some words.
The school, which has had six passes of the seven students who sat last year's Grade Nine Achievement test, is trying to encourage the same sentiments among all its students.
Yesterday, the programme was boosted with book donations, representing the first of "many" expected from British journalists and other agencies, who have visited the centre, courtesy of Oliver Foot, vice-president of Public Affairs at Air Jamaica and nephew of Michael Foot, former leader of the British Labour Party.
Yesterday students flooded the stock of books.
"I came down here five years ago and I saw the desolation and the desperation and nothing was here. I just thought they needed help. More and more persons have given money but the more important thing is books so they can learn how to read rather than to use the gun," Mr. Foot said.
Level one student, Deon Robinson, agreed. "It will help us to learn better so we can become someone better in life," she said.
For the school's overjoyed principal, Lorna Stanley, the first shipment of books signalled that: they will be able to raise the level of literacy among the students; her fingers will get a break from typing reading material; and she will be able to get home to bed before 3:00 a.m. more often.
She has to reach the school by 6:30 a.m. daily to help prepare breakfast for the students who, usually, have had nothing to eat.
"Up to last night I was typing stories. I keep telling them, the dictionary is the only thing I cannot type," she joked.
"It's mostly a remedial school. They are very eager to learn to read so when I told you how happy I was to get a number of the same books, I'm not kidding around. It's been hard on us. If you have 20 children in a class and they are sharing, you can't give them a book each to take home so everyday, we have to issue out the ten books that we have. At least now we can give them a story book to take home," she said, beaming.
The donation was flown in free of cost by Air Jamaica.
