Fleurette Harris, guest services manager at Grand Lido Negril, teaching reading to a group of Negril All Age students.
By Keril Wright, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
SLOW LEARNERS at the Negril All Age are benefiting from a reading programme initiated by the Grand Lido Negril Resort. The programme, which started some two weeks ago, has a complement of 14 staff and is helping some 100 students.
Millicent Williams, spa manager, is president of the programme, dubbed the Grand Lido Negril Reading (GLNR) Programme .
"The programme was the brainchild of our GM. He wanted to give something back to the community and he decided that giving back educationally was most appropriate," said Ms. Williams.
However, she pointed out that the problems they encountered were much more than anticipated.
"We thought we would be dealing with slow learners but what we are seeing is children who can't read at all," she said, adding that this was not restricted to the younger children.
"It's terrible! I have a group of seven graders, eight boys and a girl and they can't read at all," said Ms. Williams.
She attributed this to the enormous student teacher ratio and suggested that slow learners within the formal school system, were not getting the attention required.
"The classes are huge, sometimes as many as 50 students per class," she said.
Negril All Age is not the only school that is expected to benefit from the Grand Lido programme. It is anticipated that GLNR will spread to other schools throughout Westmoreland and Hanover.
According to Ms. Williams, Negril is just the pilot programme, which presently runs twice a week, Tuesdays and Fridays, for an hour each day.
There is also a plan to initiate an 'adopt a child' component, where staff members adopt needy students.
"It's a joy for us to do this. Personally sometimes I wish I could go every week," Ms Williams said.
