AL­TA On­line is a ground­break­ing leap in lit­er­a­cy ed­u­ca­tion that gives learn­ers from ages nine to 99 ac­cess to a com­pre­hen­sive read­ing and spelling pro­gramme with Caribbean life skills con­tent.

Through part­ner­ship with AL­TA, Sco­tia­bank has brought AL­TA On­line to stu­dents at the Mor­vant Laven­tille Sec­ondary School, Rus­sell Lat­apy Sec­ondary School, San Juan Boys’ Gov­ern­ment School and Nel­son Street Boys’ RC School.

Sco­tia­bank’s com­mu­ni­ty in­vest­ment pro­gramme, Sco­tiaRISE, aims to re­move bar­ri­ers to op­por­tu­ni­ty and help young peo­ple reach their full po­ten­tial. Cindy Mo­hammed, Sco­tia­bank’s man­ag­er of com­mu­ni­ca­tions and cor­po­rate so­cial re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, sees AL­TA On­line as a key tool to ful­fil youth po­ten­tial.

“Ed­u­ca­tion is a pow­er­ful dri­ver of op­por­tu­ni­ty. Through our part­ner­ship with AL­TA, we have seen first‑hand how this pro­gramme comes to life—vis­it­ing schools, en­gag­ing with ed­u­ca­tors, and wit­ness­ing stu­dents ac­tive­ly in­ter­act­ing with AL­TA On­line and ben­e­fit­ing from it in mean­ing­ful ways.”

AL­TA On­line hands own­er­ship of their lit­er­a­cy learn­ing to stu­dents as they nav­i­gate through the struc­tured, ex­plic­it teach­ing of the lit­er­a­cy build­ing blocks.

Stu­dents quite quick­ly con­nect their AL­TA On­line learn­ing to their lives, es­pe­cial­ly their school ex­pe­ri­ence. One stu­dent com­ment­ed that AL­TA has helped him im­prove his spelling, which he said ex­tends to im­prove­ment in his oth­er sub­jects, such as sci­ence, so­cial stud­ies and even maths.

San Juan Boys’ Gov­ern­ment School prin­ci­pal Don­na Thomas Sealey said, “Many of our stu­dents come from low so­cio-eco­nom­ic back­grounds where read­ing is not al­ways a pri­or­i­ty in the home, and in some cas­es, par­ents them­selves strug­gle with lit­er­a­cy. As a re­sult, a num­ber of our boys en­ter school with sig­nif­i­cant read­ing chal­lenges.

“We are al­ready see­ing the pos­i­tive im­pact of AL­TA On­line through im­prove­ments in stu­dent per­for­mance in both in­ter­nal and ex­ter­nal ex­am­i­na­tions. The part­ner­ship be­tween AL­TA and Sco­tia­bank has be­come a pow­er­ful ve­hi­cle for change, open­ing doors for our stu­dents to re­alise their aca­d­e­m­ic po­ten­tial.”

Act­ing prin­ci­pal of the Rus­sell Lat­apy Sec­ondary School Sta­cy Al­can­tara mean­while, ob­served, “A vast ma­jor­i­ty of the stu­dents show a will­ing­ness to par­tic­i­pate and are ful­ly en­gaged in the ses­sions. The ad­di­tion­al sup­port from the AL­TA On­line of­fi­cers has al­so been a crit­i­cal com­po­nent in the suc­cess of the pro­gramme.”

Part­ner­ships like this are key to cre­at­ing paths for lit­er­a­cy learn­ing to en­able chil­dren to mean­ing­ful­ly en­gage with the cur­ricu­lum, there­by trans­form­ing school fail­ure in­to school suc­cess.

AL­TA CEO Ar­lene Wal­lace-Romero stat­ed, “AL­TA is pleased to part­ner with Sco­tia­bank to bring AL­TA On­line to schools in need of lit­er­a­cy in­ter­ven­tion.

“Since AL­TA On­line is a ful­ly web-based, in­ter­ac­tive pro­gramme, stu­dents not on­ly ac­cess it on desk­tops, lap­tops or tablets at school but can con­tin­ue their lit­er­a­cy learn­ing wher­ev­er and when­ev­er they have ac­cess to a de­vice and the In­ter­net.

“This col­lab­o­ra­tion now ex­tends be­yond four years, and we look for­ward to con­tin­u­ing our part­ner­ship with Sco­tia­bank to im­prove the lit­er­a­cy scores of school stu­dents through­out T&T.”

If you, or some­one you know, is in­ter­est­ed in join­ing AL­TA On­line; spon­sor­ing a stu­dent or a class, con­tact 624-2582 or email al­ta­pos.tt@gmail.com. Keep up to date with AL­TA on Face­book, Twit­ter, and In­sta­gram: AL­TA TT