Learning devices take beating; ministry urges greater care

Electronic devices students have been using for online classes have been taking a beating, prompting the Ministry of Education to urge parents and guardians to help their children to take better care of the tablets on loan to them.

School Liaison Officer Andre Hines responded to issues raised by some parents over the state of some tablets and other devices they received from the ministry.

Figures on the number of damaged devices were not made available.

Though Hines insisted that the majority of the devices given to students over the past year are still working as designed, a notable number have sustained some damage while being in use by some students. The device’s charging ports, in particular, have been heavily damaged, rendering the devices useless, the official said.

Screen replacements and other cosmetic nicks to tablets have also been reported.

“We realized that a lot of devices have become unusable just because of the fact that the charging port is no longer good, and that is due to the continuous use because most devices were not meant for this kind of condition where students would be using them every day,” said Hines.

“We are working with some local providers to be able to source things that we would need to regularly replace on the devices, for example, the screens [and] charging ports. So we are trying to make sure we support any person who has a device from the Ministry of Education that has been damaged, to point them in the direction of where they can go to get them repaired.”

The official did not indicate whether the ministry intends to hold parents responsible for lost or damaged devices. (SB)