200-YEAR-OLD MOUNT AIRY PRIMARY & INFANT SCHOOL IS NOW FIBRE FAST
Students and educators at the Mount Airy Primary & Infant School in Negril, Westmoreland are excited as they are now enjoying internet speeds up to 100 Mbs courtesy of the Flow Foundation. This marks the first time that the school is being connected to Flow’s network. The fibre-fast connection to the school falls under the Foundation’s Internet in Schools Programme and will give the school’s academic programme a huge boost.
The 200-year-old institution, located in Mount Airy – three miles south of the tourism town of Negril, has six hundred and ninety-eight (698) students enrolled and caters to students from the surrounding communities of western Westmoreland and eastern Hanover such as Good Hope, Orange Hill, Retirement, Hopewell, Whitehall, Red Ground, among others. According to the school’s administration, the institution faced many challenges when they were without the service. Their situation was further exacerbated with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic almost two years ago.
In commenting on the positive impact of the internet service, Keen Jackson, Vice Principal, expressed his deepest appreciation on behalf of not just the school body but also the community. “The donation of the fibre-fast internet from the Flow Foundation has made a massive impact on our school’s operations. We were not able to teach online and, as a result, some amount of learning loss took place. Now, we can engage most of our students in online classes and have begun to stem the learning loss we were experiencing. Additionally, we are able to research new and innovative techniques for connecting with and teaching our students in the digital space,” he said.
Jackson also shared, “Due to the internet access, we are able to communicate effectively with all of our stakeholders. We have this critical resource which is an integral component of the teaching and learning process. The school is now in a much better place as it relates to meeting the academic and psychological needs of our students. When school begins in January we will be able to conduct both face-to-face and online classes.”
This sentiment was echoed by Maxine Russell, Grade 1 Teacher and 4H Club Leader, who has been at the institution for eighteen years. She said, “Our school is located in the hills and even though the Mount Airy community is approximately two miles from Negril's town center, for many years we did not have access to the internet. So, I am very happy for the service as I can teach my online classes. I can also effectively communicate with my students. I do research which will help me to reach my students and efficiently get my job done.”
She continued, “My entire family are residents in this area and all of them attended Mount Airy when no one knew about anything called internet, so this makes it extra special for me and the community.”
Russell comes from a long line of descendants all of whom are past students of Mount Airy, including her grandmother, Mrs. Rhoda Johnson, who celebrated her 102nd birthday in November. “Internet?! Computer?! When I was going to school, I didn’t know anything about those things. In my days, we used the school library to get the information we wanted and we wrote it down in our books with pencils. It was a long process. And today, I live to see this thing called internet that my grandchildren, great-grandchildren and future generation will benefit from. It is a good thing,” she shared.
Former Grade 6 student, Kiandra McNab, who now attends Westwood High School, having graduated earlier in the year shared, “I was really excited and relieved when we got the internet at our school. I was studying for PEP exams so the internet really helped me with my school work and preparing for the exam. Thank you Flow Foundation.
Speaking on the Foundation’s donation of internet services to the school, Kayon Mitchell, Executive Director, said, “We are happy to provide this service to Mount Airy Primary and the community. This is a much-needed resource, especially in these times and we are committed to transforming lives with our technology. We will continue to support education across the country through our Internet in Schools Programme, the donation of devices and data as well as the training of teachers while we remain focused on driving digital inclusion.
Since the start of the year, the Flow Foundation has continued its long-standing support of the education sector in Jamaica through various initiatives and public-private partnerships. The provision of fibre-fast internet access to Mount Airy Primary & Infant School is another way that Flow fulfills its mandate to drive digital inclusion and bridge the digital divide.
