Education

One hundred and sixty-eight students across the public schools on Montserrat are fully equipped heading into the new school year, courtesy of the Project Aid Alliouagana’s 6th Annual Back-to-School Drive. The initiative, held last Sunday, saw students from the Brades and Lookout primary schools being presented with new backpacks and school supplies. In addition, 62 students received school uniform packages. 18 students of the Montserrat Secondary School were also gifted backpacks and school supplies. Project Aid Alliougana says the support is intended to help ease the burden on families as they prepare their children for the new academic year and to ensure that children have the resources they need to start the school year with confidence and focused on their education. The charity credited the success of this year’s drive to the support of its grant-making charity partners in the United Kingdom, whose funding made the initiative possible along with Ralph Remi, King Ocean Services and the Ministry of Education. Local vendors also contributed to the event, creating an environment that allowed students to have one final day of fun before school resumes. The charity also expressed appreciation to the volunteers who worked behind the scenes to organise and deliver the initiative. Project Aid Alliouagana says the success of the 6th Annual Back-to-School Drive demonstrates what can be achieved when the community comes together to support children. Persons interested in supporting the project, volunteering or contributing to future initiatives can visit the charity’s website at www.projectaidalli.org.

Applications now open for the Montserrat Island Scholarship. The scholarship, administered through the Human Resources Management Unit’s Learning and Development Division, offers financial support for individuals pursuing further tertiary education at the University of the West Indies or another approved institution. It provides EC$80,000 per year covering tuition, books, accommodation, and travel for the recipient. Applicants are required to submit a completed application form, academic transcripts and certificates, details of their proposed course of study, references and an essay or personal statement. Completed applications should be returned to the Chairman of the National Training and Scholarship Advisory Committee, through the Human Resources Management Unit at the Office of the Deputy Governor. Applications can be submitted by mail to P.O. Box 292, Brades, Montserrat, or by email to Training.HRMU@gov.ms. Further information is also available from the Human Resources Management Unit by telephone at (664) 491-2365 or 491-2444.

Teachers across Montserrat’s primary and secondary schools were engaged in a Child Online Protection Workshop last Friday. The programme, sponsored by the Organization of Eastern Caribbean states (OECS) and UNICEF, is taking place in each of the OECS states. This workshop was co-facilitated by guidance counselor at the Montserrat Secondary School Vandina St. Helaire, and education transformation project manager with the Ministry of Education, Hyacith Bramble-Browne. In a conversation with ZJB News, St. Helaire said, “the reason for conducting these workshops is because across the region, we’re in a situation where our children are online and they’re not safe. So, what the workshop is designed to do is to educate and also basically provide us with the tools as educators to basically support our children when they do go online. Remember we’re in the age of technology that we want our children to be safe and that is basically what the workshop is about.” Participating teacher Inez Daley-Knights, who teaches health, integrated science, and biology at the Montserrat Secondary School, highlighted the necessity of the workshop to prepare teachers to help students in a vulnerable situation. She said “the workshop has prepared us to help students who are somehow getting entangled online in a way that not only they’re becoming addicted, but some have been led astray into situations that can harm them in many ways, including sexually. It is very important for us as teachers to have knowledge regarding this topic because we need to be prepared for when students share things with us that demonstrate to us that they’re in a compromising position. Senior social worker at the social services department, Teshawn Matthews, who also participated in the workshop, spoke on the timeliness of the workshop, adding that it was a “very timely workshop because even in our caseloads, we have been seeing an escalation around social media with our young people and how it is being used and the disadvantages added to that.”  The workshop was co-facilitated by Mrs. Hyacinth Bramble-Brown.