GASP School’s Scrabble Initiative…

Oct 19, 2016, Sports, http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....scrabble-initiative/

Annandale Secondary/President’s College latest beneficiaries of project

Students of the Annandale Secondary School, Annandale North ECD and those of the President’s College, Golden Grove ECD, were the most recent beneficiaries of the School’s Scrabble Initiative, under the auspices of the Guyana Association of Scrabble Players (GASP) in collaboration with Yvonne Murray when the latter individual ventured to those two institutions on Monday afternoon and handed over the items to the respective administrators.
Ms. Murray first touched down at the Annandale Secondary School and was met by its Headmaster, Nicholas Persaud and Head of Department (Allied Arts), Renita Dindyal. Ms. Murray explained that the gift was donated by the Ministry of Education following a request by members of the GASP and the subsequent intervention of its Minister, Rupert Roopnarine. She also explained that the desire to have the games within the school structure was discussed at the level of the GASP executive. Thereafter, she handed over the two board sets complete with tiles and 2 scrabble dictionaries. The students also received several copies of authentic 3 and 4 lettered words. Ms. Murray urged them to care the equipment while encouraging them to attain proficiency in the game.
Ms. Dindyal thanked Ms. Murray for the gift even as she acknowledged the input of the Minister of Education. She said that the interest level of the students is very high since the school administrators had only recently staged a scrabble competition under the guidance of Sir Navin Shiwdass and the students recently engaged in a tournament in tandem with their school Inter House sports activities that involved A, B, C and D houses; ‘B’ House had emerged victorious.
Shortly afterwards, Ms. Murray ventured further along the East Coast, this time to the President’s College, Golden Grove. She received a warm welcome from teacher, Tamica Wilson, who expressed delight that the school has been selected as part of the programme. She also revealed that the teachers have recently commenced playing the game as a part of their sports programme and the gesture was indeed timely. Most of the children confirmed their interest and even revealed that they utilized the technology via the computer to engage in sessions.
Another senior scrabble affiliate and former teacher, Devraj Deonarine, was also at the function and he has committed to help the students in attaining proficiency in the sport.
Once again, Ms. Murray emphasised that the game has the ability to foster good vocabulary and urged the students to support each other’s efforts while learning the game.
One of the students, Susanna Augustine, delivered the vote of thanks and expressed gratitude to Murray, the Minister of Education and staff and the executives of the GASP for their kind chivalry.
She also endeavoured to use the equipment towards their personal development as well as the benefit of her school.
Meanwhile, 6 additional schools have been identified to receive similar equipment and shortly after completing her tasks along the East Coast, Ms. Murray travelled to the Oasis Café, Carmichael Street Georgetown, where she joined several members of the GASP to discuss and fine tune issues pertaining to the project. Those in attendance at this meeting were James Krakowsky, former National champion, Fred Collins, President of GASP, Leon Belony and top seed, Moen Gafoor.
The group was indeed enthused by Murray’s input but admitted that there were areas that needed fine tuning. Mr. Belony noted that the project could not have been successful devoid of the input of the Minister of Education and he expressed gratitude to him. The group also discussed ways of enhancing the programme and has said that they will continue to collaborate with the Ministry of Education towards the success of the programme. Several other games and other equipment would be distributed to several other secondary schools, under consideration, within the coming weeks.
The presentation at the Annandale Secondary School and the President’s College are the latest institutions to have received the gifts following closely on the heels of a similar presentation at the Caramel Secondary School last week.