Corinaldi Primary, St James High top Observer Teachers’ awards
SANDY BAY, Hanover – The Corinaldi Primary and St James High schools copped the top spots at the Jamaica Observer’s annual western regional Teachers Awards last Thursday, with combined sales of more than 20,000 copies of the company’s popular Study Centre publication.
The publication, which is circulated to more than 350 schools islandwide in the form of a 24-page publication on Tuesdays, covers material that is critical for students preparing to challenge the Grade Six Achievement Tests (GSAT) as well as the Caribbean Examination Council’s (CXC) examinations.
Sponsored by the National Commercial Bank, Maggie and Trade Winds, distributors of the ‘Fresh’ brand of beverages, the publication is heavily relied on by schools islandwide in their quest to deliver quality education.
Other schools that came in for special mention included:
. Bethel Primary and Junior High School, which came in on top for the parish of Hanover;
. Unity Primary School for Westmoreland;
. Brompton Primary School for St Elizabeth;
. Black River High, also in St Elizabeth;
. Westwood High, Trelawny;
. Mannings School for Westmoreland and
. Knockcalva High for Hanover;
Special sectional prizes were taken by St James High for being the Most Improved School in the western region and Munro College for being the Best New School in the Western Region.
In his address at the awards function, held at the Beaches Sandy Bay Resort, Edward Khoury, the chief executive officer of the Jamaica Observer, said the company’s investment in the publication was based on a fundamental belief in the importance of the role of education in preparing the nation’s youth to excel.
“They are the foundation of the next great generation. If they are not properly prepared for the new global age, Jamaicans will struggle to excel as a people, he said in a speech inspired by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s famous quote, ‘Knowledge is power, information is liberating, education is the premise of progress in every society in every family’.
He said the success of the publication was not only evident in the whopping circulation or sales figures for the product, but the hundreds of warm appreciation letters and electronic messages each year from teachers and students acknowledging the assistance rendered by the publication in their efforts to prepare for examinations.
Khoury’s sentiments recalled those earlier expressed by Jean Reid, the Ministry of Education’s community relations/education officer for its Region 4, who commended the Observer as a media house that has stood tall among the ministry’s partners in education and its efforts to improve the academic performance of Jamaican students by placing greater emphasis on infrastructure, leadership and the curriculum.