Sat | Jan 11, 2025

St Mary schools get driving simulators

Published:Monday | February 20, 2023 | 12:16 AMCarl Gilchrist / Gleaner Writer
Matthew Hylton, student of Iona High School in Tower Isle, St Mary, manoeuvres the driving simulator after it was handed over to the school by MP Robert Montague (left) and Chinese Ambassador Chen Daojiang (centre) as Principal Melva Humes Johnson (right)
Carl Gilchrist
Matthew Hylton, student of Iona High School in Tower Isle, St Mary, manoeuvres the driving simulator after it was handed over to the school by MP Robert Montague (left) and Chinese Ambassador Chen Daojiang (centre) as Principal Melva Humes Johnson (right) looks on. Behind Montague is Sean Pryce, who manufactured the simulator.

Six high schools in western St Mary are now equipped with driving simulators, which were handed over by Member of Parliament Robert Montague and Chinese Ambassador Chen Daojiang to Guys Hill and Iona High schools.

Valued at $2.2m, the simulators were funded by the Chinese and manufactured locally by Kingston-based Sean Pryce.

The schools join Tacky, Oracabessa, Brimmervale, and St Mary high schools as institutions that are equipped to train students to drive while in school, a programme that Montague started nearly a decade ago.

“It’s a project I started in 2014 when I was a senator and I gifted a Toyota Corolla to the Tacky High School for the students to learn to drive,” he explained. However, insurance issues as it relates to coverage for students forced the school to abandon the programme.

“We did some research and came up with a driving simulator. Fortunately, the former Chinese ambassador heard about what we were doing, came onboard, gave us the first simulator at Tacky High School and I have bought for Oracabessa, Brimmervale, and St Mary High [schools].”

After Daojiang took up the post in May last year he continued the relationship, aimed at providing more simulators for schools in the constituency.

Speaking at the handover at Iona, Ambassador Chen stressed the importance of high school education, and encouraged the students to do well.

“If the young people are strong, the country will be strong. The youth represents the future of a country and a society.

“High school period is of crucial importance, during which you will grow from an adolescent to an adult; you will take the first step of knowing the society and gaining skills,” the Chinese ambassador noted.

“This period will play an important role in your personal development and future career; therefore the importance of high school education is self-evident,” he added.

Over the years, more than 3,000 Jamaicans have benefitted from Chinese government scholarships and short-term training sessions to study in China.