The Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) presented five desktop computers to Guy’s Hill High School, at a handover ceremony held at the Commission’s office located at 1 Ballater Avenue in Kingston on Wednesday, February 1, 2023. Guy’s Hill High School was awarded the computers for having the most participants online at the ninth annual Junior Athletes Anti-Doping Education Workshop for region one. Region one includes secondary schools from Kingston and St. Andrew, St. Thomas and St. Catherine.
The 2022 series of workshops were held virtually for the third time due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. The workshops were held in October for four regions across the island. Guy’s Hill High School was declared the winner for the third consecutive year. In 2021, they were awarded 25 Samsung tablets for having the most participants online at the 2020 Junior Athletes Anti-Doping Education Workshop for region one and in 2022, they were awarded five laptops for having the most participants online at the 2021 workshop.
Speaking at the handover ceremony, The Honourable Alando Terrelonge, Minister of State, Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, said,“As a Government we would like to commend and congratulate Principal Donald, his entire school board, members of staff, you the young kings and queens of the Guy’s Hill High School, as well as your parents and coaches for actively participating in our education programme. It is clear that the Guy’s Hill family takes not only athletes’ performance on the track, but also their education and more importantly their education in anti-doping very seriously.”
He added, “I also want to commend JADCO for this initiative that is not only providing the necessary anti-doping education that will serve to maintain Jamaica’s role in the region, as the leader in anti-doping, fair play and sports integrity, but that continues to help assist our schools and our students with the well needed devices that facilitate online learning as part of the Commission’s outreach activities.”
Also speaking at the event, Executive Director of JADCO, June Spence Jarrett said, “I am happy to announce that as of October 2023, we will resume the Junior Athletes Anti-Doping Education Workshops in person. This will be a historic hosting of the series, as we will be celebrating our 15th anniversary and the 10th annual staging of the Junior Athletes Anti-Doping Education Workshops. We look forward to celebrating this momentous occasion with you.”
Principal of Guy’s Hill High School, Cecil Donald said, “The tangible gesture here this afternoon of these five desktop computers will certainly add to the academic success of our students. You see we are living in the technological age and as such we can never have too many computers on the school campus. The truth be told though, we really need more computers. We are very grateful for these and they certainly will assist our students in doing well in subjects such as Information Technology and also, they need these for general research. Therefore, as Principal, I want to laud the work being done by JADCO and I want to laud the effort of providing these technological equipment.”
Shanice Slack, student of Guy’s Hill High School, who was in attendance at the event said, “I think it is a great gesture to present these desktop computers to us because there are students at my school who have technological issues and seeing that we are in a technological era these computers will be used for great things so that students can get access to their classes.”
In the coming weeks, 15 desktop computers will be presented to schools from the remaining regions, which include region two, with schools from Clarendon, Manchester and St. Elizabeth, region three, with schools from Westmoreland, Hanover, St. James and sections of Trelawny and region four, with schools from St. Ann, St. Mary, Portland and sections of Trelawny. In addition, a computer laboratory for a primary school will be upgraded as part of JADCO’s outreach activities.
Over 1000 junior athletes and their support personnel from four regions across the island attended the virtual series of the 2022 Junior Athletes Anti-Doping Education Workshops. The workshops have been held annually since 2014.
