Mashabo Primary School, a school located in the Indigenous Mashabo Village along the Essequibo Coast, recently received thirty tablets and five laptops from the Guyana-Jamaica Friendship Association (GJFA), an organization that adopted the school almost seven years ago.
According to Headmaster Modiram Beepat, these devices have arrived in the nick of time for the National Grade Six Assessment (NGSA) examinations slated for August 4th and 5th, which his school’s fifteen Sixth Graders are currently preparing to write. “For this one month they’ll be using the tablets at school. We don’t want them to take it home because it affects them from revising. But, come September, we will give the new Grade Six pupils the tablets to take home for a year. We will ask the parents to sign an agreement form saying that they will be responsible for it”, the headmaster said.
Beepat, however, noted that the school is currently without access to the internet. Prime Minister Mark Phillips in collaboration with the Mashabo Village Council are presently working to establish a hub at the school. In the meanwhile and in the absence of available technology, the school’s teachers are downloading lessons based on the consolidated curriculum from the Guyana Learning Channel and YouTube. These lessons after downloaded and stored on the devices.
Since taking the school under its wings, GJFA has given support to Mashabo Primary for its academic, social and sports programmes. GJFA contributions included a feeding programme for six months before the previous administration stepped in, cricket gear, five hundred books to various classroom libraries, visual aids, and several microscopes. In 2016, the GJFA provided past examination papers for the school’s Sixth Graders who were preparing for the National Grade Six Assessment with the objective to help aid multiple pupils to secure spots at Grade ‘A’ secondary schools in 2018 and the next three consecutive years. The GJFA in 2019 and 2020 also awarded three of the school’s top pupils with Chrome books (a laptop operating with Google Chrome system) and $100,000 cash prizes. The school was also a recipient of a $250,000 grant from Banks DIH in 2019; this was follow-up to a recommendation made by GJFA to the beverage company. The grant was in recognition of the school’s improved performance at the NGSA examinations. Fifty thousand dollars from this grant was used to purchase a printer and is currently in service printing copies of worksheets for various classes.
According to Chairman of GJFA, Dr. Frank Denbow, the donation is expected to increase the pupils’ schooling which have been challenged by the pandemic. “The pandemic has changed our approach and with schools in Guyana and around the world closed we had to change our strategies. It became necessary to get devices that would allow the students and teachers to communicate. With this in mind we decided to donate to Mashabo Primary School 30 tablets for the children as well as 5 laptops for the teachers to use. We feel that with these devices we can help bridge the digital divide between the affluent and not so affluent in the society. We know the all children can learn and the potential for these students is the same as any other students regardless of financial background. Our experience at Mashabo has borne out that fact and we will continue to work with the students, teachers and parents in order to continue the upward trajectory of the school, the community and Guyana as a whole”, Dr. Denbow said.
At the region’s last head-teachers’ meeting, Regional Education Officer (REDO) of Region Two Nichola Matthews took a decision to have Six Grade pupils return to face-to-face classes in preparation for the upcoming grade six exam or NGSA. Beepat said that the Six Graders resumed face-to-face classes a month ago and pupils are allowed to attend one school session (half day) per day in the week. However, on Monday the pupils turned out to school for the full day’s session, which in turn, necessitated the resuscitation of the school’s feeding program. Fifth graders are also benefitting from this donation, HM Beepat said. There are ten teachers on staff at Mashabo Primary School, but there is a rotation system where two teachers are continuously present to implement curricular lessons. Each teacher from Grades One to Six and teachers of the Year One and Two Nursery department, will have access to one of the five laptops to assist in their curriculum delivery.
Beepat extended thanks to GJFA for their philanthropic work to the Teachers and pupils of Mashabo Primary School: “On behalf of the PTA and Ministry of Education, we are forever grateful to this organization for this timely donation. May God continue to bless Dr. Frank Denbow and all the members of GJFA amidst this global pandemic as we strive to mitigate the disparity of education in the hinterland and empower our pupils to become future leaders.”
