The University of Guyana Berbice Campus (UGBC) has resumed its summer reading programme for primary school students after a one-year hiatus. The programme was initiated in 2003 by the tertiary institution’s Library Department with the aim of fulfilling one of its mandates: to serve the Berbice community.
Financial constraints experienced by the organising body saw the programme being halted last year. However, this year, the library was able to secure the necessary funding to resume the annual event. At a simple opening ceremony held yesterday in the auditorium of UGBC, the library commenced the 10th edition of its summer reading programme, targeting Grade 5 pupils.
“In the beginning the reading programme was targeting the Grade 6 students, but this year we wanted to do it a little different – starting with Grade 5,” UGBC lecturer Dr Grayson Halley explained.
This, he said, would allow the university to monitor the students as they move on to write the National Grade Six Assessment. “We want some kind of a feedback. When we did it before with the Grade 6, we weren’t able to get much feedback to know how or if it worked…”
Monitoring the educational development of the students who are participating in the programme will allow the university to conduct a thorough evaluation to determine if the students are actually benefiting or if the programme and its delivery need to be revised.
Halley stated that over the course of the next three weeks, the specially trained facilitators “will work with these students, providing the environment for them to learn to read and develop their reading skills; that’s the main objective.”
He said the university recognises the importance of students having the ability to read and comprehend, since “at the university we find some amount of limitation in our students because they don’t like to read. You need to know how to read and understand what you read. I tell my students if you can read, you are already halfway there to passing your exams.”
Some 60 pupils, 30 each from the Mc Gowan and Tain Primary schools on the Corentyne are currently participating in the reading programme. And according to the Region 6 Education Officer responsible for the Primary Level Bhagwantie La Cruz, who delivered the keynote address at the opening ceremony, the participants should make the most of the opportunity afforded them.
In her address, La Cruz highlighted what she considers ten benefits of reading. In addition to providing mental stimulation and serving as a stress reliever, La Cruz said other benefits include vocabulary expansion, acquisition of knowledge, improved memory, developed analytical and thinking skills, free entertainment and relaxation.
For the next three weeks, the participants will be taught how to read and comprehend what is read, by the library’s staff assisted by third-year students of UGBC.
Prior to the commencement of this year’s reading programme each participant was given a test aimed at determining their aptitude so as to guide the tutors on the best way forward to teach them. They were tested individually to know what they are coming into the programme with, and then an evaluation will be done at the end to know if the child gained anything from the three weeks experience.
