Carlong donates books to basic schools

Carlong Publishers (Caribbean) Limited has donated 2,000 textbooks and general readers to 50 basic schools across the island to promote literacy at the early-childhood level. Twenty-five of the schools from regions one, two, and six received books yesterday at a ceremony held at the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Library on Tom Redcam Drive in Kingston.

Tomorrow, the other 25 schools from regions three, four, and five will receive their books at a presentation ceremony to be held at the Grandiosa Hotel in Montego Bay.

The gesture is in keeping with the early-childhood literacy campaign to ‘Make Every Child a Reader’.

Chairman of Carlong, Shirley Carby, said the books provide critical support to teachers in their delivery of the curriculum, and are valuable learning aids for students on their path to attaining literacy.

“As educational publishers, we work closely with the Ministry of Education. We try to give back in as many ways as we can,” she said.

Carlong Publishers has donated books biennially to basic schools in need for the past 16 years.

This is to ensure the students are equipped with adequate resources to learn and also to assist in the certification of their schools, in compliance with the Early Childhood Commission’s Twelve Operating Standards for early childhood institutions.

K ENYON HEMANS Marufah Tijani, principal of the Islamiyah Basic School, reads to her students at the Carlong Publishers Basic School Donation at the Kingston and St Parish Library, Tom Redcom Drive, Kingston, yesterday.