In today’s technologically advanced world, one service club in St Ann has realized the importance that technological gadgets will play in the advancement of early childhood education.
It was on this basis that the Kiwanis Club of Moneague presented the Golden Grove Basic School with 10 tablets on Monday, September 18.
The handing over ceremony was held at the school grounds and saw several Kiwanians participating in the handover of the tablets.
The funds used to purchase the tablets were gained by the Kiwanis Club of Moneague through a grant received from the Kiwanis Foundation of Jamaica.
According to president of the Kiwanis Club of Moneague, Joseph McKenzie all the clubs within Division 24 (of the Kiwanis Club) submitted a proposal of a project for a grant. The Kiwanis Club of Moneague later came out on top.
“The theme of Kiwanis is actually serving the children of the world and we believe that is our mandate to give back to our community. Therefore, Golden Grove Basic School was chosen as one of the schools for now,” Mr McKenzie explained.
He added that the handing out of the tablets would go a far way in assisting the children with their education, not only at the early childhood level.
“If you look at it now, technology is the way to go… Therefore we want to use this (the donation of the tablets) as a springboard, so that when they go into the colleges, or into the high schools and primary schools, they are au fait with the use of tablets and all the technological gadgets they need to further their education,” Mr McKenzie added.
Mr McKenzie explained that the Kiwanis Club of Moneague was started on April 14, 2003 with 25 members. Today the club has 22 members, but according to Mr McKenzie, “we are still strong in terms of community presence.”
Divisional secretary for division 24 and member of the Kiwanis Club of Moneague, Sejae Burey, told the North Coast Times in an interview that the project was also conceptualized as they saw “the need in the community where we wanted to boost technology in schools, especially at the early childhood level.”
She added: “A number of club members are trained educational professionals, so we are quite aware that children have different learning styles. We hope that this project will facilitate the support of different learning styles within the school as well.”
Ms Burey also added that she felt good that the donations of the tablets had come to a reality.
“We feel really good about it, especially in light of the fact that, the Early Childhood Commission representative shared that it is going to help to increase the grade of the school to a level two in terms of it helping them to meet certain requirements. So we are really ecstatic about that,” she said.
Pincipal of the Golden Grove Basic School, Pamela Gordon, was overjoyed that the school was provided with the tablets, which she said would assist the children in learning much better through the use of technology.
“We want to thank the Kiwanis Club of Moneague for their contribution to the school,” she said. Mrs Gordon also shared similar sentiments that the tablets would assist the children greatly.
“Over the years we had been doing manual things with the children like teaching them letter sounds and numerals, but now since we have the tablets, I think they will learn much better,” she added.
Mrs Gordon shared that the Kiwanis Club of Moneague has helped the school over the years as they have provided desks, fencing, the planting of trees to provide shade for the children and adopting a child from the school.
Lieutenant Governor Richard Austin said he was “very excited and deemed it a privilege to be leading the division and have our clubs playing such an important role in the communities.”
“This (the donation of the tablets) is really a fine example of the direction, especially service and other corporate entities should undertake so that we will eventually have a better future and a better Jamaica,” Mr Austin said.
In the meantime, president of the Kiwanis Club of Moneague, Joseph McKenzie, told the North Coast Times, that the club had signature projects that they take on.
“Every year, we actually feed the children at Mustard Seed in Haddon (near Moneague). Currently, what we are doing in the club now is to adopt a child. All our members within the Moneague club, we adopt children from the different basic schools, where we supply like books, tuition fees, lunch money, shoes, clothes or uniforms,” he disclosed.
Mr McKenzie explained that the club will be looking at Walkerswood Basic School and assisting with building infrastructure.
