THREE PRIMARY SCHOOLS TO BENEFIT FROM DONATION MADE BY THE TOOTS FOUNDATION!

STUDENTS from three primary schools are to benefit from a donation of tablets to support online learning.

The donation is being facilitated through a contribution of $750,000 (US$5,000) by the Toots Foundation to non-profit organization Youth for Excellence, which has partnered with the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Information to acquire the devices.

The foundation was set up in memory of late reggae icon Frederick “Toots” Hibbert, who passed away from COVID-19 on September 11, 2020.

Institutions to benefit from the support are: Treadlight Primary School in Clarendon, which is the parish Hibbert was born; and the Trench Town and Windward Road primary schools in Kingston, which are situated in areas where the Hibbert family lived.

Education Minister Fayval Williams, in her remarks at the check presentation ceremony held at the ministry’s headquarters in Kingston on Monday, expressed gratitude for the support being provided to the country’s youth.

She said that the tablets will be purchased through the National Education Trust (NET) and e-Learning Jamaica Company Limited and will be distributed to the selected schools in 2022.

Hibbert’s daughter and vice-president of the Toots Foundation Leba Hibbert Thomas said the organization is happy to support the work of Youth for Excellence.

“They assist unselfishly in leading children positively,” she noted.

Founder and president of Youth for Excellence Jénine Shepherd said that the donation from the Toots Foundation is “significant”.

She said that the organization has plans to “support families, through an agriculture education program for parents of inner-city children, who lost their jobs during the pandemic.”

Toots Hibbert was titular head of The Maytals which he formed in the early 1960s with Jerry Matthias and Raleigh Gordon. They had a series of hit songs in ska, rocksteady and reggae including Six And Seven Books of Moses, Peeping Tom, Monkey Man, Daddy, Bam Bam, 54-46, Pressure Drop, Funky Kingston, and Sweet And Dandy.

Hibbert died one month after his album, Got to be Tough, was released by Trojan/Jamaica Records. It won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album in March, giving him his second win in that category. His first was for True Love in 2005.