Basseterre, St. Kitts, September 22, 2016 (SKNIS): The National Archives of St. Kitts and Nevis continues to directly and indirectly up-build the self-worth and national pride of students in the Federation by making available material about nation-builders, historic sites and the individuals associated with them.
On last Wednesday’s edition of the Government programme Working for you, National Archivist Victoria Borg-O’Flaherty said that the National Archives came up with a way of providing accessible information to students and teachers that did not involve walking into Government Headquarters in Basseterre to collect it.
“Something we did about five or six years ago was the launch of the Basseterre Past and Present website,” Mrs. O’Flaherty said. “We noticed that children from schools would come to us, or at least their parents, would come to us asking for information about all kind of sites around Independence, Black History Month, you know those two times, and we wanted to make sure that people got access, easy access.”
The historic Basseterre website, www.historicbasseterre.com, covers sites in Basseterre, people connected to the sites, any other stories that come with the sites, and even documents that give bits and pieces of the stories.
As a former teacher herself, Mrs. O’Flaherty informed that the website has a section that is specifically designed for teachers to encourage students to provide the information in individual and creative ways.
“We also wanted the teachers to be aware that some of the information was being copied straight out of the handouts we were giving them,” Mrs. O’Flaherty said. “And we didn’t want that to happen, because let’s face it, when you’re copying something directly, you don’t understand it. We were hoping that the schools would pick up on that, and that they would start asking questions rather than simply allowing children to regurgitate what we handed out to them. … So we also have a special section where we encourage teachers to look up and see ideas of how they can use the material in class.”
“We were also trying to encourage children doing SBAs to use the material as well,” the National Archivist said. “That was kind of a first step – we have this on our website – come see us and we’ll show you what else we’ve got.”
The National Archives of St. Kitts and Nevis also provides assistance with material for exhibitions, and research assistance in determining family trees and so forth.
