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| What is the Barita Education
Foundation? |
| The Barita Education Foundation
is a charitable organization committed to improving literacy
and numeracy at the Early Childhood Level in Jamaica. The
Foundation is supported financially by the Barita Group. |
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| What is the Foundation's
Mission? |
| The overall mission of the
Education Foundation is to:
Provide support in the development and
implementation of educational programmes for young children
in Jamaica, ultimately impacting on our nation’s future.
The Foundation achieves this by dedicating the resources
available to the areas of literacy and numeracy as well
as training and sharing any expertise gained with colleagues
and supporters in the Early Childhood Education arena. |
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| What is the Foundation’s
Vision? |
| The vision of the Foundation is to expand
the educational programme currently being developed and
successfully implemented to a significant portion of the
Early Childhood sector.
Relying on this success, the Foundation will strive to
influence change at the policy and operational levels.
We intend to encourage a national discussion on Early Childhood
Education and the link between successful Early Childhood
Educational programmes and sustainable development. |
| The R.E.A.D. Programme
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| The R.E.A.D. programme is a balanced and
integrated language arts programme in which, listening,
speaking, reading and writing are interrelated. Its
goal is to produce life-long readers, writers and problem
solvers. Children's reading abilities and the strategies
they bring to the task of reading are assessed followed
by diagnostic teaching. [see
more] |
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| History of the Programme |
| Barita’s efforts in the field of education began
through their support of a feeding programme at the St. Martin
de Porres Primary and Basic schools. At the same time a group
of concerned citizens called, “The Friends of St. Martin de Porres”,
were invited to identify methods to improve literacy and numeracy
skills among students at the school. Through a comprehensive analysis
of the weaknesses in the training process being applied in the
field of early childhood education, they concluded that a remedial
programme for numeracy and literacy was needed.
Barita supported their efforts through major long-term financial
sponsorship and guidance, and eventually expanded and took over
the work of “The Friends of St. Martin de Porres” creating the
R.E.A.D. programme (Reading for Educational Achievement and Development).
The programme was so successful at St. Martin de Porres that Barita
decided to reach out to other schools facing literacy and numeracy
challenges.
As administrators of the programme, Barita has full time teachers
on staff who go into the schools and incorporate the programme
under a structured framework working along with the School Boards,
the Principals, the Education Officers and the Parents. The teachers
spend a full term or a full year depending on the needs of the
school to establish the programme thereafter offering a monitoring
service to each school. |
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