Library Established at Infant School in Olympic Gardens

A library has been established at the Jamaica China Goodwill (JCG) Infant School in the St. Andrew community of Olympic Gardens, at a cost of $9 million, to encourage children to read and to boost literacy at the institution.

The recently opened library, a gift from the charity group Reading Owl International (ROI), will also serve two primary schools, also in Olympic Gardens – Balcombe Drive Primary and Drews Avenue Primary, with a combined population of 550 students.

A parent, Christopher Donaldson, tells JIS News that it is the first library for the community.

“A lot of time and money was spent to put this together, and we will use it to build these young minds for the world. It is a good thing to uplift the community, and I like it,” he says.

The setting up of the facility was made possible through ROI, a Jamaican organisation based in the United States (US), collaborating with the National Education Trust (NET), the Ministry of Education and Youth, and the Early Childhood Commission (ECC).

The total amount of books at the state-of-the-art facility is about 3,700, valued at US$40,000.

For grandmother Vivienne Dennis, the huge library is one that has made her “very proud, because this can benefit all of us, both the parents and children, so I am a very proud grandparent of this institution, and we can’t make these [books] waste. We are going to make use of them, and we give thanks for the investment”.

Chairman of the school, Dr. Rebecca Tortella, says libraries like the one at the institution are “special places of exploration and learning, and safe places for families and communities to have fun with children”.

“We thank our Jamaican families in the diaspora for the work that they do, and this is a shining example of ways to remain connected and to give back,” she adds.

Co-Founder of ROI, Elaine Dickson, says they are on a mission to ensure that children see themselves in “some of the books that they read”, so that they can experience the “joy of reading, and each of us have an opportunity to do something, and together we can be as expansive as possible for the kids, that is our goal.”

She argues that parents have a very important role to foster a culture of reading in their children, as they learn the “most from their parents.”

“I want to encourage them to use it (library) with due care. Allow them to choose books that they like, and we are asking you to be partners in that,” Ms. Dickson encourages.

Senior Education Officer at the Ministry, Novellette McLean Francis, says there is a commitment to achieve one hundred per cent literacy across the island, and this library fulfills Principle Number Seven of the ECC’s mandate to have a planned and organised learning environment for children.

“This school represents the type of partnership that we are happy to commend. Your [donors’] commitment to increase the literacy levels of Jamaican school-age children by providing learning resources to schools, and other organisations, is well appreciated,” the Senior Education Officer adds.

Reading Owl International is a nonprofit organisation that partners with schools and community organisations in Jamaica, to enable access to books and other learning resources for school children, and other groups.

It is managed by a team comprising business executives, education and policy leaders, writers, entrepreneurs, legal professionals, and others.

They envision a world in which every child has the educational resources to help them succeed and where every child can learn and be afforded the opportunity to realise their full potential.

The ROI was also founded by Easton Dickson. It serves communities with the greatest need, by capitalising on the relationship forged with their partners in the targeted population to “ensure that our resources are stewarded by organisations that share our passion and vision for improving literacy,” their Vision Statement states.

Recently, the Government disclosed that an assessment of all four-year-old children within the Early Childhood sector has been completed, as they target students who may have early reading, numeracy or behavioural challenges.

It is providing for an intervention to boost the literacy levels for the targeted children, to ensure that the numeracy and literacy levels are drastically addressed in the education system. The national literacy policy is geared at having fourth-grade students achieve mastery of literacy.