Food For The Poor & Heart/NTA To Provide Training For 500 Basic School Teachers

Ellerslie Pen, Spanish Town, St. Catherine | Tel.: (876) 984-5005 | www.foodforthepoorja.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA RELEASE

FOOD FOR THE POOR & HEART/NTA TO PROVIDE TRAINING FOR 500 BASIC SCHOOL TEACHERS

Students from Feed My Sheep Day-Care, Pre-School and Basic School located in Kingston recently expressed their gratitude to Food For The Poor(FFP) for the donation of a new school building, after their old school was destroyed by fire in 2008. Sharing in the moment are (from left) Joan Bozeman, Administrator; Leslyn Ingram, Principal; Ingrid Stewart-Wint, Assistant Teacher and Clive Spencer, Senior Field Officer in the Construction Services Department , FFP.

Spanish Town, St. Catherine- (May 29, 2012): Food For The Poor-Jamaica has entered into an agreement with HEART Trust / NTA for the training of 500 early childhood education teachers, over five years. Plans for this scholarship programme are far advanced and at the end of the consultations a Memorandum of Understanding will be signed between both organizations.

Starting in September, FFP-Jamaica will be providing scholarships to Basic School teachers who need to upgrade their qualifications. FFP will disburse 50 teachers’ scholarships every September and January for the next five years. HEART Trust /NTA will be implementing the training. Scholarship recipients will be given the opportunity to pursue Certification Programmes in Level 2 Early Childhood Development or Level 3 Early Childhood Administration. Each FFP-Jamaica scholarship will provide tuition, travelling and meal allowances for the teachers.

Mr. Ron Burgess, Senior Director – Recipient Services, FFP-Jamaica, explained that the organisation is committed to improving the infrastructure of early childhood education, as well as advancing the quality of the training and human resources available to nurture the country’s youth. “We want our nation to have the best quality of teachers and the most caring teachers. That’s why FFP-Jamaica has decided to give scholarships to Basic School teachers employed in the system who want to be trained and certified, but do not have the means to support this activity.”

Mr. Burgess said that FFP-Jamaica would also be assisting those teachers who had been pursuing early childhood education programmes, but have had to discontinue their studies due to financial constraints.

This teacher training programme, initiated by FFP-Jamaica, will run simultaneously with the FFP ‘Jamaica 50 Campaign,’ which will see the charity building/upgrading 50 Basic Schools islandwide in 50 months in celebration of Jamaica’s Golden Jubilee. On April 18, the charity announced that this commemorative education project would be funded through local and international donations and FFP fund-raising activities. The first school in the project will be opened in September this year. In succeeding months, at least one school will open each month for 50 months. Each Basic School will have the capacity to accommodate between 40 and 100 children.

Since its inception, FFP-Jamaica has made significant contributions to the island’s education sector by aiding in the construction of schools and sanitation facilities. Additionally, for the past 13 years, FFP-Jamaica has distributed financial grants to students. In 2011, more than 300 students islandwide benefited from approximately J$5.5 million in back-to-school grants.

The charity has also been instrumental in providing schools with furniture and supplies. For example, during March of this year, FFP-Jamaica outfitted 18 educational institutions with much-needed school furniture.  The institutions were recommended by the Ministry of Education and included Mico University College, York Castle High, Green Park Primary, Manchester High and Kingston College.