Toll Authority Donates 50 Tablets To Portsmouth Primary School Students

The Portsmouth Primary School in Portmore, St. Catherine, has received a donation of 50 tablets from the Toll Authority of Jamaica under the ‘One Laptop or Tablet per Child’ Initiative.

The devices, valued at $1.4 million, which come with protective cases and warranties, will benefit needy students who are not on the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH).

At the handover ceremony on Tuesday (June 29) at the Transport and Mining Ministry’s offices in Kingston, portfolio Minister, Hon. Robert Montague, noted the importance of investing in the education of the nation’s children.

“Money is not spent on education; money is invested in education… . It is an investment that will pay off many times over in the future. We are investing [in our children] because it is in them that we have hope for a better and brighter tomorrow,” he said.

Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Fayval Williams, who participated in the ceremony, thanked the Toll Authority for the donation, which, she said, will better support online learning.

“I want to express my deep appreciation for this tangible support of the ‘One Laptop or Tablet per Child’ Initiative. This will allow needy students who are not on the PATH programme to better participate in online learning and make use of the facilities for remote teaching and learning provided by the Ministry,” she noted.

Principal of the Portsmouth Primary, Lennox Davis, in expressing gratitude, said that the donation will “certainly help us to bridge the digital divide, one tablet, one laptop per child”.

“Portsmouth Primary School will benefit tremendously from this significant contribution, and for that we are thankful,” he added.

Chief Executive Officer, Toll Authority of Jamaica, Lerone Laing, for his part, said that the Authority is seeking to make a second donation of devices at an estimated cost of $1.5 million for the back-to-school period in August or September.

“We are hoping to involve some other schools in Portmore because we are targeting that area, but also some select rural schools as well, because the toll network is not only urban, it is rural as well,” he said.

The ‘One Laptop or Tablet per child Initiative’, which is being managed by the National Education Trust (NET), engages stakeholders in partnerships for the procurement of appropriate devices for needy students across the island.

To date, 17,000 devices have been procured and distributed.