funds from the Madeline Joell Nest Egg Fund.

Last year, 13 primary schools applied for the fund, but only eight met the requirements.

Many of the schools used the money implement supplementary reading programmes with the objective of improving literacy.

The schools that received the fund last year were St. David's Primary, Francis Patton Primary, West Pembroke Primary, Gilbert Institute, Paget Primary, Southampton Glebe Primary and Somerset Primary.

The Madeline Joell Nest Egg was established in 1999 to assist Island schools in their drive toward academic excellence and is administered by ACE Limited.

It was named after Madeline Joell, President of Marketing at ACE Bermuda and UBP Paget MP who passed away suddenly last year.

The objective of the fund is to provide support for programmes which are designed to improve performance in the basic educational disciplines of language arts, math, science and social studies.

"We have spent a considerable amount of time with the principals of the schools that have been funded during the first year of the programme to gain their feedback on the application process,'' said ACE Bermuda president Gary Schmalzriedt. "We want to make this process as straightforward as possible.'' To be eligible for the fund a public primary school must submit a business plan that includes a mission statement, an assessment of the current situation, an overview of the proposed programme, the expected result, the method of evaluation and a budget.

Each primary school which meets the criteria is eligible to receive $10,000 per year, with a maximum of $50,000 per school over five years for one programme.