Started under the Cognitive Initiative Programme four years ago, the “Benab Foundation,” has fostered literacy and numeracy amongst dozens of underprivileged, mostly Georgetown-based second form students.

During their first year of tutorship, two schools were targeted and 50 students were tutored. In 2013, they targeted four schools and had close to 80 students; last year they targeted five schools and will be doing the same this year.

From July 18, 2016 to August 12, the Foundation will undertake classes in five high schools and expects to tutor over 120 students. The schools targeted are St. Johns College, St Georges High, Dolphin Secondary, Campbelville Secondary and St. Winifred Secondary.

Co-founder of the Foundation, Saevion David-Longe, said that in the beginning, there were only seven tutors but last year, they had close to 30. Volunteers have to apply. The prerequisite for becoming a tutor is to have a Grade One or Two pass in the two target subjects of Mathematics and English. An interview and training session is done with every volunteer, not only to refresh their memory in certain areas, but to also ensure they adhere to a general code of ethics.

So far, they have never had cause to reject any volunteer.

“Even if they are qualified and lacking in other areas we put them to work along with stronger volunteers.”

Aside from developmental programmes for the volunteers, there are also developmental programmes for the members as well, said Longe, as they believe in the need to both develop themselves and those who come to them for help.

The initiative was started with the goal of reaching out to students who were not doing too well, particularly those in junior secondary schools.

Explaining the rationale behind the choice of only tutoring form two students, Longe said this choice was made in an attempt to prepare students for their third form examinations while simultaneously reinforcing some of the fundamental principles of Mathematics and English.

“What we want to do,” he said, “is generally improve the lives of Guyanese through educational ‘upliftment’ and we hope to soon divert into areas such as sports and health. We also want them to be trained in certain social skills.”

While the programme is at the moment limited to Georgetown due to several factors, students from around the country are invited to partake. “So we are limited but yet not limited,” said Longe.

Response to the programme has since been “extremely good” from both the participants and authoritative figures in the schools targeted.

Commenting on the future goals of the Foundation, Longe said that they are actively working on making the programme a whole day event rather than a four-hour one. Also, it is hoped that they would soon be able to extend the programme to primary schools so that students preparing for the National Grade Six Assessment would have the help they need.

Additionally, they are looking at ways in which to make the programme a countrywide one and branch out into areas such as community development through sports and health. However, most of these plans are at a standstill as funding has been a major hurdle.

“We were not able to attain as much as we anticipated,” he said, “we thought the idea would have been a little more catchy.”

While they have begun to recently receive funds from various private individuals and entities, there still remains a lot to do.

“I believe however, that the rate of contributions are raising now because we are in the fourth year of the Cognitive initiative and people are realizing that there is some (merit) to it,” said Longe.