Some non-PATH students to get laptop grants

The Government has announced a $20,000 grant to 36,000 students across the island to assist in the purchase of tablets or laptop computers to needy pupils who are not on the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH).

Education Minister Fayval Williams, speaking in the House of Representatives yesterday, said that there will be a registration process and criteria for the selection of the students.

She said a start date for the registration process will be announced soon.

Williams said that there are 18,000 tablets and over 12,000 desktop computers already in the school system, and the ministry will procure and distribute additional tablets and laptops, commencing with the distribution of 40,000 tablets for PATH students effective October 2.

Welcomed the initiatives

These will be distributed by eLearning and will be targeted at PATH students in grades four to six. Williams said that another 20,000 devices will be purchased, and these will be distributed to students in grades seven to nine.

Angela Brown Burke, the opposition spokesman on education, welcomed the initiatives to use digital technology to assist the teaching and learning process.

She, however, said that it is important that the Government conduct a study to determine who are likely to determine the needs of the population.

"We are still leaving too many of our children behind," Brown Burke said. Her opposition colleague, Julian Robinson, said that the Government's plan does not go far enough.

He said that with 600,000 students in school system, and the parents of about 20,000 students being able to afford devices, "the plan will fail the Jamaican students".

According to Robinson, in a best-case scenario, about 100,000 students from the primary to high school levels will have access to devices, and thus approximately 500,000 would be left behind.