Education Minister Andrew Holness has made a plea to top local athletes, calling on them to support the development of the education system.

Holness was speaking at the Fun 4 Kids Sanya Richards Fast Track Programme on Monday at Kingston High School.

The programme, which is the brainchild of Jamaica-born Richards, the world 400m cham-pion, and Andrew Post, the president of Fun 4 Kids, promotes literacy and sports.

"I want to make a special appeal to our local athletes who are now international stars, with the celebrity (status) and the goodwill that you have garnered internationally, that as much as possible you should leverage that to support the education of those who will follow behind you," Holness said.

"I think that would be the greatest investment that you could make in the development of your own country ... and, when you do that, you will be ensuring that the country from which you came will be the country of choice for its own citizens," added Holness, who praised Richards for her insight, as well as her United States track and field teammate, Lauryn Williams, for playing the supporting role.

Six schools involved

Penwood, Bridgeport, Tarrant, Donald Quarrie and Tivoli joined Kingston High as schools to benefit from the Fun 4 Kids Sanya Richards Fast Track Programme.

The programme encourages students to do sporting activities, as well as promoting literacy and numeracy.

Charles Reid, principal at Kingston High - in its second year of the programme - said his students who participated in the programme had shown great improvement.

"Two years ago, there were students who qualified for Boys' and Girls' Champs but could not enter simply because of their scores, their performance rating in the school was too low," he pointed out.

However, Reid was quick to add that "As a result of this programme last year, of those students, seven were able after the first six months of intervention to enter Boys' and Girls' Champs.

"I believe this programme has done a lot for the students of Kingston High School," Reid said.

The programme is supported through sponsorship by Air Jamaica, Digicel and the Ministry of Education.

Post said the programme has grown from 55 to 375 students in three years.

"We hope to continue this success and expansion," he said.

'Particularly pleased'

Holness also noted that he was "particularly pleased".

"I am very pleased with the outcome so far," the minister said. "I am particularly pleased that you have on board Sanya and now Lauryn (Williams) too. But we need other people to join and support this project. I like the module because it brings together two important things. It brings together athletics and fun. But it brings together a dear thing to my heart, literacy and reading, and putting those two things together, you have managed to gain the interest of the children who most need that kind of intervention."

Richards also praised the students of Kingston High.

She said: "You guys here are the inaugural school and you have done a remarkable job, and I want you to be the role models for other schools we will bring in."