By Klao Bell, Education Editor
Students of Mona Primary School focus on the videophone as they listen to students from Godwin Junior School in East London read excerpts from a play. Their teacher and cultural agent, Cynthia Grenyion, is at right. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
STUDENTS AT Mona Primary School yesterday got what might be the first taste of the Jamaican classroom of the future during a live hour-long videophone link-up with Godwin Junior School in London.
More than a dozen students, parents and their teachers assembled in the school's library at the crack of dawn in order to be ready by 6:00 a.m. to meet their British counterparts who were almost in the middle of their school day at 11 a.m.
The link-up is a part of Global Gateway, a project by the British Council, the United Kingdom's international cultural and educational agency. Global Gateway allows students, teachers and education policymakers across the world to meet, talk, and share cultural lessons with each other via the Internet. In fact, just before Godwin joined Mona Primary yesterday morning, the students had a video link with a school in Nigeria.
"At this link-up, there was special emphasis on the children interacting with their counterparts in the U.K. The schools are working together on a new play called Jericho Stone, written for a collaborative performance by students of Godwin, Mona Primary, Mona High and Edna Manley College," explained Nicola Johnson, British Council Jamaica manager.
GODWIN'S SUCCESS
Godwin is a top performing junior school which, according to the school's web site, "enjoyed a very successful year in 2002. The number of children achieving level four and above in National Curriculum Tests was well above the national average."
Educators at Mona Primary, as well as other schools in the east rural St. Andrew region, are paying special attention to the development and socialisation of boys. Mona has several programmes, including an annual boys' day and a mentorship programme involving fathers and male professionals from the community.
Daniel Miles, 10, a lead actor in the play 'Jericho Stone', was ecstatic about the link-up. "Although I felt rather grumpy about waking up so early this morning, I was really thrilled by the link," he said. "I was rather impressed with Godwin and how kind they have been to their brethren in Jamaica. This is a good opportunity to learn about modern technology and show off our talent."
