Kingston, Jamaica – In a move to support the Ministry of Education and the PSOJ’s mandate to improve literacy and encourage reading as a healthy habit, Pan Caribbean Financial Services has partnered with the Expanding Educational Horizons Project (EEH), the USAID sponsored project whose objective is to improve literacy standards in select primary schools. The program will facilitate each branch visiting the schools in their locale and executing reading sessions with the students.
In addition, the island wide reading programs are now better equipped, thanks to donations from PanCaribbean. Presentations were made to St. Anne’s Primary in Kingston, Ferguson Primary in Mandeville, the Negril All Age in Westmoreland, the Anchovy All-Age in St. James and the Brown’s Town Primary in St Ann. The donations are part of a larger program in celebration of PanCaribbean’s 25th anniversary, which will see book donations to some 25 schools in total.
Dr. Jean Beaumont, head of the (EEH), said that when the Ministry of Education assigned her organization to Anchovy All Age, their literacy rate was not at all impressive. Beaumont says, the school now boasts a 98% literacy rate.
Anchovy All Age principal, Mr. Gerald Lawrence says, “What we have been able to do is as a direct result of the help we’ve received from Dr. Beaumont and her program, and organizations like PanCaribbean that recognize the importance of our children’s future,” Karlene Dennis, Assistant Manager – Corporate PR, Pan Caribbean Financial Services said that the donation of the books is not the extent of her company’s involvement with the schools. “This is just the beginning, we’ve involved our branches in ensuring we can sustain the school’s reading programs in and around their communities,” she explained.
Beverly Wedderburn, principal of the Negril All Age school accepts the books from Charmaine Clarke of the Savanna-La-Mar branch of PanCaribbeanBank amidst students of the school. The PanCaribbean Team visited the school on Wednesday, February 11 and conducted a reading session with some students.
