Additional 6,300 Devices To Be Provided For Students Under Serve
By: , June 13, 2021
The Full Story
An additional 6,300 tablets will be provided for needy students through the Social and Economic Recovery and Vaccine (SERVE) Jamaica Programme.
Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, Dr. Grace McLean, made the disclosure while addressing the ‘Let’s Connect with Ambassador Marks’ monthly forum for members of the Jamaican diaspora on Thursday (June 10).
SERVE is the Government’s $60-billion programme that will provide the foundation for the country’s economic revival beginning in the current fiscal year.
The provision under SERVE will buttress initiatives already under way by the Government to ensure that each student in the public school system is equipped with a device to support online learning.
Among them is the ‘One Laptop or Tablet Per Child Initiative,’ which engages private-sector partners and overseas Jamaicans.
Dr. McLean said that more than 16,000 tablets and over 800 laptops have been collected. “These have been distributed to needy students right across the island. This is to a value of over $350 million,” she noted.
Dr. McLean thanked the Jamaican diaspora for its generous contribution to the device drive, noting that this group has, so far, provided close to 3,000 tablets. These, she said, have already been distributed.
In addition, she noted that 18,000 tablets have been provided to Programme of Advancement through Health and Education (PATH) beneficiaries in grades four to six and 15,000 laptops for students in grades 10 to 13.
She said that another 16,000 devices are being procured and are to be made available “very soon” for grades seven to nine students.
Dr. McLean informed further that 24,000 vouchers have been distributed, to date, under the Ministry’s ‘Own Your Own Device’ programme, which targets 36,000 students. Some 16,000 of those students have already collected their devices.
“So, we are on our way to ensuring that at least 123,000 of our students are supported through Government initiatives [for the current school year]. I anticipate by the beginning of the new school year, there is going to be a significantly improved position as it relates to the provision of devises for our students,” Dr. McLean said.