Over 700 attending three-week vacation programme

Over 700 school children are attending a three-week vacation enrichment programme, which caters to the needs of underachieving students in the primary education system. The Children Against Poverty programme (CAP) was launched this week in fourteen (14) centres throughout the State and involves students from twenty one (21) primary schools on mainland St. Vincent as well as in the Grenadines.{{more}}

The CAP programme is the result of a project, which was proposed in 2002 by the Poverty Reduction Task Force and has been implemented since then by the Ministry of National Mobilization, Social Development and Local Government in conjunction with the Central Planning Division and the Ministry of Education. The project was conceived out of the need to use education as a means of breaking those cycles of poverty that keep generations perennially under the line of acceptable standards of living. The government sees the strategy of working directly with children as critical in addressing issues of education, and causes of poverty in the development of human and social capital.

The main objectives of the programme are to shape and promote positive attitudes/behaviours and to improve academic performance. The CAP programme is also necessary to provide continuous support that will assist the development of the students’ self-esteem and self -confidence. Students attending the programme will receive remedial instruction in areas such as Literacy, Numeracy, Social Studies, Science, Art/Craft, Dance/Drama, and Physical Education. The children will also be taken on field trips in order to learn more about their Vincentian heritage and environment.

In his remarks at the launching of the programme at the Sion

Hill Government school on Tuesday 24th July 2007, Minister of Social Mobilization, Social Development and Local Government Mike Browne, urged the participating students to strive for excellence not only academically but also

socially and morally, while at the same time building healthy bodies and minds.

Indications are that all children participating in the CAP programme have shown improvement in both academic and social skills. The programme, which runs from July 23 to August 10, has received tremendous acclaim from participants, parents, volunteers and corporate citizens.