Kitson Town All-Age Takes Steps to Improve Literacy

The St. Catherine-based Kitson Town All-age School has appointed a four-member taskforce, which will monitor students’ performance and make recommendations to the school board as to measures to be taken to improve the school’s literacy level.
The appointment of the committee was part of strategies to come out of a recent meeting convened by the school board and the Parent-Teachers Association (PTA) to address the school’s poor showing in the 2009 Grade 4 Literacy Test.
Retired educator and board member, Ms. Agnes Mitchell, said that parents must assist the process to lift the literacy level at the school by encouraging their children to read and write.

Retired educator and board member at the Kitson Town All-age School in St. Catherine, Agnes Mitchell, addresses a recent meeting held at the school to address literacy challenges, emerging from the recent Grade 4 Literacy.

“Reading is the key. From the moment the child starts to look up, help them to write, give them books so that they can learn to read and write. What your child turns out to be, depends on you,” she stated.
Another board member Ms. Adasa Whyte, said that children should be encouraged to spend more time on their school work.
She recommended that parents take their children to church and have them participate in religious studies as one way of stimulating interest in reading. “We want the good things to outweigh the bad; it can be done. We just need to work together,” she told the packed room.
Mr. Ira Simms, who has three children at the school, told JIS News that he was heartened by the meeting. “I am going back home more charged up to find ways and means to help my children to be better children in the society,” he said.

Parents recently attended a meeting convened by the board and Parent-Teachers Association (PTA) of the Kitson Town All-Age School to put measures in place to improve literacy levels at the St. Catherine-based institution.

“If we are going to cut down on the crime rate in our country, it begins at home, and if parents control their children and help in their educational development, then the Government and the police would not have the problems of doing it for us,” Mr. Simms added. He suggested that “the powers that be “could look into using popular songs to help students to read.
Meanwhile, Principal of Kitson Town All-age, Ms. Nerica Powell-Hay, called on parents to visit the school regularly and pay attention to the reports on student performance.
“Your support as parents is crucial to us as teachers to achieve our objectives. Work with us to help the children to master the Grade 4 Test because if they do not master it, they will not be able to master the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) when they reach Grade 6,” she pointed out.