Petrina Francis, Education Reporter
THE NEW Horizons Project (NHP), which was introduced in 72 primary schools to address literacy and numeracy, has reaped success and is to be implemented in more schools across the island.
NHP was a seven-year joint initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Government of Jamaica. The long-term goal was to strengthen the ability of schools and surrounding communities to improve student performance in reading and mathematics. The project ended recently.
Beverley Jobson-Grant, principal of Polly Ground Primary School in St. Catherine, said the programme was highly successful at her school.
VAST IMPROVEMENT
She explained that the literacy level at the school was consistently low. With the introduction of the project, her school gained a 96 per cent pass rate in the grade-four literacy test last year. This, she noted, was the highest score in the Ministry of Education Region 6.
Mrs. Jobson-Grant said her school received computers, overhead projectors, digital cameras, televisions and videos as a part of the package for the programme.
The technological devices, she said, enhanced the children's reading.
Jean Beaumont, director of the NHP, said she has received positive feedback from the schools that were a part of the project. She noted that the breakfast feeding programme was part of the project and had tremendous impact on students' learning.
In her contribution to the 2005/2006 Sectoral Debate in Parliament, Maxine Henry Wilson, Minister of Education Youth and Culture, lauded the project.
TOP PERFORMERS
"The literacy levels in those primary schools have, in some cases, moved from a low of 16 per cent to a high of 50 per cent. The Grade Six Achievement Test results for those schools have also trended up," she said.
Mrs. Henry-Wilson noted that the ministry would be looking at how the NHP can be instituionalised in the remaining 733 schools.
Some of the top performing schools in the NHP are Jericho Primary, Polly Ground Primary, John Mills Primary and Junior High and Allman Town Primary School.
