Asana Downer (centre), principal of Silverstone Basic School; and Patricia Smith, Vice Principal of the school, receive a cheque of $500,000 from Dennis Beckford, accountant at the Desnoes and Geddes Foundation.
It has almost been a year since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Jamaican shores, and scores of schools are still trying to establish a ‘new normal.’
The administration of the Portmore-based Silverstone Basic School is among educators now navigating challenges in the transition to virtual education, plus a lack of resources to resume physical teaching.
Catering to 270 students between the ages of two and five years old, it was important that the school acquired the necessary infrastructure to ensure that no child is left behind.
Dennis Beckford (right), presents the principal of the Queen’s School Jennifer Williams (centre), and her Dean of Discipline Helen Powell with a cheque for half million dollars following the school’s victory in the Desnoes and Geddes (D&G) Foundation 5 for 5 promotion, powered by Malta.
Forced to contend with the cost of adapting to changes brought on by COVID-19, the Queen’s School, like scores of other institutions across the island, had to halt, if not completely abandon several development projects last year.
Thanks to the Desnoes and Geddes (D&G) Foundation and tremendous support from a committed school community, the Kingston based institution is looking to reclaim some of that momentum.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has caused massive job cuts and strangled the world economy, Clarendon-based teacher Ann Marie Fagan-Williams managed to create employment while teaching the nation s youth.
She started 3S Kindergarten and Early Childhood Institution in May Pen in the parish. Registration of students started in July.
Fagan-Williams said, when the Government ordered that all schools be closed in March, she began homeschooling some of the students she had at Silverstone Basic School in Portmore, St Catherine. My husband suggested that I teach them at home, so the students would leave all the way from Portmore to May Pen for school. I had to keep them for the week and the parents would come and pick them up on Fridays. We had about 11 children staying with us. They were a handful, but I love my children, he said.