Photo by Kimesha Walters
A group of students participating in classes at the Prospect Community Centre, Clarendon. The classes are run by a group of volunteer teachers in the community.

Kimesha Walters, Gleaner Writer

PROSPECT, a small district located in north central Clarendon, is big on volunteerism. Through the efforts of a dedicated team of educators, students who have dropped out of the formal school system now have an opportunity to continue their education.

The community which thrives on small farming has produced promising sports talents as seen in Omar Johnson who has taken the football team at Prospect All-Age School to two back-to-back finals in the North Central Clarendon League with his brilliant coaching skills.

He is one of the many students benefiting from volunteer classes at the Prospect Community Centre. "I want to make something good of myself in the future. I would like to be a coach, because I am good at it," he tells The Sunday Gleaner.

Winston Gilman, chairman of Spaldings High School, is one of the teachers of the centre. He explains the reasons for the inception of the project.

Not functionally literate

"The programme is designed to help those who are not functionally literate and numerate, and also to encourage those who are both literate and numerate to aspire to acquire higher education," says Gilman. "It is free because the community is a farming one, and a large number of persons are not able to finance their formal education, hence this voluntary effort spearheaded by myself, Theresa Shortts, Sophia Morgan and Trevor Burrell," Gilman adds.

Classes started approximately four weeks ago and runs Monday to Friday from 7p.m. to about 9:30 p.m.

The community centre is built on land that has been leased from a member of the community. Its ply board structure needs a paint job and the rugged concrete floor needs tiling. However the volunteers are soldering on. Presently, the community club is financed by fund-raising activities that are planned by the executive members of the youth club.

High school dropout

Lorayne Thomas is another student who aims to enlist in the Jamaica Defence Force. Her earlier attempt at realising her dream was thwarted when she became pregnant in fifth form and dropped out of high school.

At that time, she was looking forward to sitting five arts- based subjects in the Caribbean Examinations Council exams in one of the high schools in Clarendon. Now she has a sense of hope. The 23-year-old is among more than 20 persons who have made consistent use of the free classes that are taught by voluntary teachers at the community centre.

Gregory Williams, too, is among this group. He dropped out of all-age school one year before his graduation. With a troubled life, he served time in prison. Today, he has turned his life around and looks forward to fulfilling his dream of becoming a businessman.

Williams said that his inspiration to go back to school came when he was incarcerated. Now he has more appreciation for learning since he started classes at the centre. "Right now mi find out sey education a di key. A waste mi waste mi time a school, cause mi did good," he recounts.

Young star Marvadene Anderson, top goal shooter for the Jamaica Under 16 Netball Team was also spotted at the community centre. The grade nine student at Edwin Allen Comprehensive High School says she finds the programme useful.

"Well, it helps me because sometimes the same work that we get at school I don't clearly understand, but Mr Gilman will even take the whole week for us to get there if we don't understand," explains a smiling Anderson.