For the better part of the last two years, schools across the island have had to rely on online/remote teaching due to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting protocols.
For hundreds of students in various communities, this adjustment has been quite a challenge given that many of them do not have access to a device suitable for online learning.
The result is that several students have struggled to participate consistently, in some cases trying their best to utilise mobile phones or borrow suitable devices where possible.
However, with uncertainty surrounding how long the pandemic will prevent a complete return to in-person schooling, this struggle could persist for quite some time.
It is for this reason that Sagicor General Insurance (SGI) Inc recently donated five Samsung Chromebooks to the Workman’s Primary School to help those disadvantaged students participate in online learning on a much more consistent basis during the current school year.
Patrick Hinkson, SGI’s General Manager for Barbados & The Eastern Caribbean, said: “The pandemic has forced all of us to make several changes to our lives. As a business, we’ve had to adjust to life in a virtual environment, but with the capacity to provide our team members with the necessary tools to execute their daily tasks.
“Unfortunately for many children across Barbados, this is not the reality, as several families and households do not have the resources to provide the tools their children need to participate in online schooling.
“SGI has had a relationship with Workman’s Primary for several years and having spoken to the Principal and teachers at the school, we saw it fit to aid the students in this way.”
Accepting the devices on the school’s behalf was Principal Sandra Downes, who said: “The donation is very timely as some students have been placed at quite a disadvantage by their lack of access to suitable devices, resulting in them losing out on valuable instruction for the education development.”
This donation is one of the most recent of Sagicor’s 180 Acts of Kindness initiative, which was a programme undertaken this year in recognition of the company’s 180 years of operations in the Caribbean.
Workman’s Primary was also recently announced by the leading insurance and financial institution as one of the eight primary schools across the Southern Caribbean to be included in Sagicor’s Adopt-A-School programme for the 2021
to 2022 school year. (PR)
