Camp Summer Plus Targets Summer Learning Loss

In collaboration with the Ministry of Education, USAID/Jamaica Basic Education Project launched Camp Summer Plus 2011 on June 23, 2011 at Shortwood Teachers’ College Assembly Hall. The aim is to harness the possibilities of summer learning to raise the educational achievement levels of low performing students by providing a rigorous academic program to achieve mastery in core subjects, and an array of enrichment activities during five (5) weeks (July 11-August 12, 2011) of the summer holiday.At the launch of Jamaica Partners for Educational Progress, our Guest Speaker, Earl Phalen talked about the unsettling effect of the summer learning loss on students’ confidence and its relation to the increase in the achievement gap between children from lower and upper income families. Having learned of his success in alleviating this problem in the United States, we are thrilled at the potential of Camp Summer Plus to improve the performance of the 125 Grade 3 students from the eight participating schools in Region 1.