Mentoring Programme Established at Green Park Primary and Junior High School

Principal of the Green Park Primary and Junior High School, Oneil Ankle has embarked on a mentoring initiative to motivate Grade 8 and 9 students to become future leaders and better prepared for higher education and good attitudes for the work world.
The movement is called World Changer, it consists of 59 male students and 15 females who meet twice per week. Mr. Ankle believes that the rigorous discussions and exposure that are offered will benefit the pupils and the wider society.
“School is more than about academics, it is about how we speak, and the kind of stance that we take on issues. As educators, if we spend an extra two hours to do more than teaching, and through talking and exposure we are able to impart better standards to our students and have them worked up with the idea of wanting to be world changers, then I believe we would have been successful in curbing the minds of potential rapists and murderers, and indeed create prime ministers and scientists,” Mr. Ankle commented.
The principal who recently got high praises from Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Audley Shaw and World Bank Vice President Pamela Cox for the running of the Sandy Bay, Clarendon-based school, said persons of high standing should visit schools and rap with students so that children can stay away from negative influences. As part of the motivating and mentoring process students are taken on field trips, and recently the boys were sent on a visit of the St. Catherine District Prison see what life is behind bars.
Meanwhile education officer for Region 6, Sylvia Henry has given full support to the move saying that it will help students to be self aware.
“It is a good programme, Mr. Ankle is a principal who thinks outside the box, and the culture at Green Park is one that seeks to impart to students what they miss else where. In time everyone, who enters that movement will reason and say I want to be special and different from those who are causing problems in our midst,” Mrs. Henry reasoned.