Government Begins Onboarding Of Schools To Fibre Infrastructure
By: September 17, 2021 ,The Full Story
The Government has started the on-boarding of 360 schools that are in close proximity to its fibre infrastructure.
This was disclosed by Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Fayval Williams, during a statement to the House of Representatives on September 15.
She said this process is expected to be completed by the end of September 2021.
“For the remaining 661 schools that are not in close proximity to the Government’s fibre infrastructure, we are far advanced with a national procurement of Internet supply for our schools,” Mrs. Williams said.
“Additionally, we are completing the survey and are advanced in the plan to upgrade the networking capability of our schools, so that there is Wi-Fi access in all classrooms to enable teachers to manage a blended environment in which some students will be in the remote/virtual environment, while others are in the physical classroom on a rotational basis,” she added.
For those students without Internet connectivity, the Ministry has launched two new TV channels through its eHomeSchool Network.
One of the channels will offer live and recorded lessons for primary schools and the other will be focused on secondary-school students.
“We have published the timetable so students can know what is coming on when. We will couple this with the ability for the student to ask questions and have some interaction with the teachers who are offering live lessons on these two TV channels,” Mrs. Williams said.
The Ministry has partnered with the Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology and the Ministry of Economic Growth & Job Creation to develop an affordable and robust approach to the provisioning of adequate Internet connectivity to all public schools.