The Editor, Sir:

I am an eleven-year-old who attends the Genesis Christian Academy in St Elizabeth. I have two major concerns that Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Education Minister Andrew Holness should know about. Since I'm in the country and have no other means of getting to them, I chose The Gleaner to express my concerns.

One of the concerns is that a gully in my community runs through culverts leading on to the main road; but the culverts are too small, causing the gully water to flood and damage the road surface, creating a hazard to drivers and pedestrians. Half the road is eaten away and the other half near collapse.

The other concern is my school's role in education. For more than 10 years, Genesis Christian Academy has been helping children from in and around the community to know the joy of reading; involving even students who have left high school unable to read. It is not free and so only some can afford it. It would be nice if the government could sponsor a few of them.

I am asking Mr Holness to please come see what my school is doing if he wants the rate of illiteracy to drop. the teachers are a godsend. as I heard mommy saying one day, "the pay is small, but that's where God wants me to be." She has been there 10 years now.

Mr Prime Minister, Mr Holness, I hope you read this. remember illiteracy is ignorance and ignorance brings war. Eliminate illiteracy and you eliminate crime for a better Jamaica.

I am, etc.,

TIMERIA MORGAN

Pepper PO

St Elizabeth