210 Students and their Parents to Benefit from Literacy and Numeracy Project

A total of 210 students from 14 schools across the island and their parents, have been selected to participate in a Literacy and Numeracy Development (LAND) project.
The project, which will get underway in January 2010, is being implemented by the National Parent-Teacher Association of Jamaica (NPTAJ).
“We will be assisting these families by providing training for their children in Grade 7 to improve their literacy skills,” informed NPTAJ President, Miranda Sutherland at the launch of Parent Month last Friday (Oct. 30) at Jamaica House.
She explained that 15 students from one school in each parish will benefit. The schools were selected based on their results in Communication Task in the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT).
“The list of all the schools with GSAT Communication Task results below 20 per cent was requested and received from the Ministry of Education. The worst of the lot were then selected by the executive of the NPTAJ at annual retreat in August,” Mrs. Sutherland informed, noting that the selection of each student was left up to the principal and administration of each school.
The Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) Presidents of these 14 schools and the families are then contacted to participate in the programme.
The LAND project will have two phases. Under phase 1, the students will receive approximately 150 hours of training to bring them to at least a preliterate stage, while phase 2 will target the parents. The training will be done by representatives of the Jamaican Foundation for Lifelong Learning (JFLL).
According to the NPTAJ President, the LAND project will help the students to “move from the non-literate state to achieve building phonetic awareness and phonetic awareness skills.”
She informed that the initiative, which is estimated to cost $2.5 million, is endorsed by the Ministry of Education.
Parent Month is being celebrated in November under the theme: ‘Parent the Right Way: Read with your child every day.’