Students To Receive Tablets Through Toots Foundation Donation

Students from three primary schools are to benefit from a donation of tablets to support online learning.

The donation is being facilitated through a contribution of $750,000 (US$5,000) by the Toots Foundation to the non-profit organisation, Youth for Excellence, which has partnered with the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Information, to acquire the devices.

The Foundation was set up in memory of late reggae icon, Frederick “Toots” Hibbert.

Institutions to benefit from the support are Treadlight Primary School in Clarendon, which is the parish Mr. Hibbert was born; and the Trench Town and Windward Road primary schools in Kingston, which are situated in areas where the Hibbert family lived.

Education Minister, Hon. Fayval Williams, in her remarks at the cheque presentation ceremony held at the Ministry’s headquarters in Kingston on Monday (December 20), expressed gratitude for the support being provided to the country’s youth.

She said that the tablets will be purchased through the National Education Trust (NET) and e-Learning Jamaica Company Limited and will be distributed to the selected schools in 2022.

Mr. Hibbert’s daughter and Vice President of the Toots Foundation, Leba Hibbert, said the organisation is happy to support the work of Youth for Excellence.

“They assist unselfishly in leading children positively,” she noted.

Founder and President of Youth for Excellence, Jénine Shepherd, said that the donation from the Toots Foundation is “significant”.

She said that the organisation has plans to “support families, through an agriculture education programme for parents of inner-city children, who lost their jobs during the pandemic.”