Tablets Distributed to Green Park Primary and Junior High School

Minister of Education, Youth and Information The Hon. Fayval Williams has given the assurance that come February 2022, Green Park Primary and Junior High School will be renamed Green Park Primary and Infant School.

She was speaking at the ceremonial handover of tablets to students at the school on Wednesday (November 17).

“I am happy to be joining forces with eLearning Jamaica to get laptops and tablets  to students and teachers across the island. To date we have delivered 499 units to primary and junior high schools in Clarendon South East with 60 allocated to Green Park Primary,” she said.

Mrs. Williams who is the first ever education minister to visit the school, said the school will also be getting some much needed upgrade in the area of its electrical installation.

Minister Williams reminded the small socially distanced audience of the government’s programmes of assistance to financially challenged parents, including government procurement specifically for PATH students in primary and high schools.

“We will continue to do that so that they can get devices. The second programme is the Own Your Own Device in which $20,000 has been made available to students not on PATH but needy. To date we are almost at 30,000 families who have signed up online, received their vouchers and redeemed them at a vendor approved by eLearning so that their children will have a device,” she said. She reminded parents that the vouchers have an expiry date.

The minister informed the audience that under the One Laptop or Tablet Per Child Programme, the government asked the diaspora, corporate Jamaica and private individuals to donate devices to children and to date some 30,000 have been distributed. Those devices were of great help to students who were unable to attend face to face classes during the pandemic.

“I am happy that we are beginning to transition to face to face mode and Green Park Primary and Junior High is one of the first to be back in that environment. We approved 51% of the smaller primary schools across Jamaica with capacity below 630 and you qualified. Most of the students live within walking distance; you have running water and that’s why you qualified. We will bring back more and more into face to face learning over the next several weeks as more students are vaccinated,” Minister Williams said.

Also in attendance at the ceremony was Member of Parliament for Clarendon South East The Hon. Pearnel Charles Jr. He thanked the education minister for the tablets and highlighted the intense need of the parish to focus on development of its youth and future leaders.

“The only way to do that is to give them the tools to tackle the challenges they are confronting in education, social and economic challenges, and we understand that this is an important part of the process. So when you are given this gift, use it and maximise it in a positive way; don’t go onto websites that you ought not to, you are taught and you know the difference between right and wrong, so be disciplined, focused, consistent in how you care and use this equipment. It will help you but it can also hurt you if it is used in the wrong way.” he said.

There will be another 100 devices coming soon for each constituency, he informed the students, and that there would very soon be an environmental agenda programme in collaboration with his Ministry of Housing, Urban Renewal, Environment and Climate Change and the Ministry of Education under the banner of the Renew Jamaica Initiative. It will invite every Jamaican to get involved in creating a sustainable future. He noted that the school’s curriculum will include how we advance an environmental agenda as we advance sustainable development.

He said children must be taught early how to keep their environment clean and the practices they should adapt at home and school to become ambassadors and agitators for the environment.

Meanwhile, Kimona Gordon, the communications director at eLearinig Jamaica, says her company continues to play its part in transforming teaching and learning through the use of information technology.

“Since the Tablet in Schools Programme was redesigned during the pandemic, eLearinig Jamaica has distributed more than 39,000 tablets to PATH students in grades four to six and 11,000 laptops to high school PATH students in grades 10-13 across the island. We are confident these devices will aid in preparing our students in developing vital communication, collaboration and digital literacy skills. We still have a far way to go so eLearning Jamaica will continue to work with the Ministry of Education in bridging the country’s digital divide,” Gordon said.