The United States Embassy recently donated stationery to three homework centres, facilitated by the U Make Me Smile Organisation.
The handing-over ceremony took place at Patna Government Primary School, in Diego Martin. The St James And Carenage Police Youth Club (Homework Centre) and the Diego Martin North Secondary Homework Centre, will all benefit from stationery to assist the educational development of students. The brain child Anjanette Payne, president of the U Make Me Smile Organisation, has been registered under Civil Network Diego Martin 2007 and Legal Affairs 2009, in building better communities.
This was done to design and implement a homework centre for primary and secondary school children, as well as youths from the community who may need assistance. The pupils of these schools generally come from the lower socio-economic strata of the community, and although prosperity abounds all around, many of these children do not share in it because their predominantly single-parent homes are characterised by unskilled manual workers and often low academic achievers.
It has, therefore, become necessary for remediation to be appendaged to home work. The critical areas for immediate remediation are Reading, Mathematics, Grammar, Creative Writing, Etiquette and Protocol. These subjects, too, represent the areas being tested in the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exam. But in spite of the many challenges faced in achieving academic excellence, many of these pupils are artistically and culturally rich and demonstrate their prowess on the sporting field. As such a balance should reflect the ideal, and the centre will be encouraging, supporting and giving the assistance required by pupils to master academic skills, promote self-actualisation and define social reconstruction. Payne expressed her gratitude to the United States Embassy for its assistance.