NEEDS ASSESSMENT:

JAMPACT ADOPTED BASIC SCHOOLS

CONDENSED SUMMARY

Recommendations Common to All Schools:

1. Playground renovation: ground pavement, equipment purchase & installation (Est. US $6,000 per school)
2. Establishment of computer labs & other technology upgrades (including accessories, such as printers) for education and administrative purposes. The goal is for each school to have a child-friendly computer lab. (Est. $5,000 USD+ per school)
3. Infrastructure:
   1. All schools need fans or air conditioning units.
   2. All schools need urinals for the boys
   3. All schools need some form of paintwork
   4. Roof repair is considered to be of significant importance to certain schools and thus should be made a major priority
   5. Each school should be provided a properly sectioned sickbay with adequate first aid supplies (external use; only medicinal)
4. Furniture, Appliances & Supplies
   1. Two schools need refrigerators
   2. All schools need upgraded office furniture, including desks, chairs, and filing/storage cabinets.
   3. All schools require replenishment of first aid supplies (external use; only medicinal)
   4. Two schools require fire extinguishers
   5. All schools need garbage cans
   6. Continuous replenishment of school supplies and teaching materials.
5. Professional/Personnel Development
   1. Principals of the remaining schools (other than St. Stevens) should be presented the opportunity to pursue degrees in early childhood education with support from JAMPACTÂ’s TAP. (Est. $1,000 USD per teacher/semester/FTE)*
   2. Periodic meetings among all adopted basic schools to exchange best practices & mutual cooperation between schools.
   3. Reduction of teacher to pupil ratio: the current teacher to pupil ratio is quite high depending on enrollment. The recommended teacher (personnel) to pupil ratio for this population is 1:10. The average ratio in JAMPACTÂ’s adopted schools exceeds 1:20.
6. Fund/Resource Raising
   1. A special workshop (series) should be hosted with all schools present, preferably including school board members, principals, teachers, & parents, to discuss the basics (including writing letters of support) of garnering financial resources and other support for their schools.
   2. School fees support - The average school cost per child is $30.00 USD per month. However, many parents are unable to pay, and thus there is a low rate of school fee collection in almost all the schools. This low collection rate sometimes contributes to the high number of absences; parents becoming inactive participants due to shame; and the schools operating within very tight constraints. These constraints involve issues of day-to-day management and often include the inability to pay teachersÂ’ salaries

* Est. of tuition is based on the University of the West Indies tuition cost for 2008/9 and the exchange rate at the time of summary.