Students Urged to Make Use of 24-hour Television Channels

The Ministry of Education, Youth and Information is encouraging students who are having issues accessing the online learning platform to make use of its 24-hour television channels as work continues to improve Internet connectivity.

The two channels, which were launched at the start of the academic year through the Ministry’s eHomeSchool Network, air live and recorded lessons for primary- and secondary-school pupils.

Portfolio Minister, Hon. Fayval Williams, said that students do not need cable to access these channels.

“We have been telling our students to try these other modalities if they don’t have online [access], so at least they get something rather than staying at home and have no access to anything,” she said.

Mrs. Williams, who was addressing a virtual meeting of the Kiwanis Club of North St. Andrew on Thursday (October 21), informed that the schedule of lessons has  been published so students can know what will be airing and at what times.

These programmes are interactive and allow students to ask questions of the teachers offering live lessons. Students may also access content via radio.

The Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica (PBCJ) has also been engaged to assist the Education Ministry to deliver material to the early childhood sector as well as at the secondary level. Additionally, the Ministry’s YouTube Channel will carry content for all levels.

Mrs. Williams stressed that the Government is cognisant that connectivity remains an issue for students, especially for those who live in rural areas, and is working assiduously to ensure that they can benefit from remote learning via the online platform.

“There is a significant effort under way that includes the Ministry of Education… the Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology, the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation and private sector [stakeholders] to look at the connectivity needs of our schools and begin to do that work to ensure that they have proper connectivity,” she said.

The aim is to develop an affordable and robust approach to providing adequate Internet connectivity for all public schools.

Mrs. Williams noted that the plan to upgrade the networking capability of schools will enable teachers to manage a blended environment when students eventually return to school for face-to-face classes.

“When we return to the face-to-face mode, we know already that we won’t be able to bring all our students back at once. There are some physical limitations in classrooms, and so we have to get used to using the blended mode in which some children will return to school and others will be online and then we rotate them so that everybody has a chance to be in the face-to-face mode,” she said.

Mrs. Williams also pledged to have discussions with the two major telecommunications companies in Jamaica – Digicel and FLOW – “to see what kind of packages we could get to introduce to our students”.