The Ministry of Education has stated that it needs approximately 10, 000 devices to ensure all Barbadian primary and secondary school children can benefit from the current online education drive, and one local service club has stepped forward to help them achieve that goal.
Today, the Optimist Club of Barbados revealed that it has received its first 50 tablets which it will distribute to the children who need it the most.
President of Optimists International Adrian Elcock told Barbados TODAY, “They are ten-inch Alcatel tablets, which were recommended by the Ministry of Education and Promotech. We figured the smallest screen would be a little difficult for the children to study with consistently, and we also got the keyboard so that the child has ease of functionality with the Google platform.
“Our Lieutenant Governors, Creig Kinch and Melissa Savoury-Gittens, coordinated with the ten Optimist clubs on the island and we raised $15, 000 for the first batch of tablets. We will donate these to the Child Care Board, the Ministry of Education and some needy families we work with every day.”
Elcock said they managed to get the tablets into the island without any major challenges. “We called Promotech last Friday, and they placed the order. There was a delay because of the holiday last Tuesday, but they used DHL and the items came in late on Wednesday night. They went through customs without any problems. Promotech had them in hand by Friday, they were delivered to us yesterday morning and we started sorting and assigning them immediately. I guess these are considered essential items now, so the whole process went very smoothly.”
The President added they were working towards importing more tablets within the next two weeks, as they recognised the urgency for them since some children would have already missed classes because they did not have the necessary tools.
“We want to get 100 tablets within two weeks; Innotech Services Limited has pledged to buy 20 with us, we have other supporters as well and hope by the end of next week we will have them so we can hand over to the Ministry of Education for their serialisation to ensure there is no duplication and get them into the children’s hands. It is not good for children to miss two weeks of school but with this technology, the previous lessons will still be on the hard drive and I am sure the teachers will step up and ensure they can pull those children along who may be a bit delayed.
“The acting Prime Minister said there is a need for 10,000 devices, so this initial batch only represents one per cent, but using our local and regional partners, we will work to get these devices into children’s hands as quickly as possible. The whole island needs to embrace this initiative because many times over the past couple of years we saw schools disrupted because of environmental issues. I think the ministry is proactive and smart in designing this so that it can be used in non-pandemic situations to ensure no children will miss out on their education when emergencies arise.”
He noted, “We have spoken to the CEO of Flow and he assured us the children using the Google classroom platform will have a zero-rated data plan. As a service club, once the pandemic is over we will find creative ways to do IT lessons and promote more familiarity with these devices. We would also want to encourage parents and guardians to ensure the home environment is conducive to study. I know not every home can give the sense of solitude that might be required, but wherever possible, just allow the child to have the few hours to keep up with the initiative.” (DH)
