Portland school gets e-learning boards

Buff Bay, Portland:

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Lifespan Jamaica limited, Nayana Williams, is urging other private entities to partner with the Government in order to create levels of educational opportunities for students.

The CEO of the Portland-based bottled spring water company’s call comes against the background of that entity’s donation of six electronically powered smart boards to Buff Bay Primary School on Thursday to assist with student development in the digital space.

Williams, who spoke about Lifespan’s commitment to education, pointed out that once the company was made aware of the request from the school during the post-COVID era, the decision was made to provide the Smart Boards, better known as whiteboards or e-boards to that institution, as there was a definite need to ensure that students were able to access the Internet and learn in the digital space.

“Lifespan could not ignore the letter received from the Buff Bay Primary School to provide these six electronic whiteboards to improve the students’ understanding and comprehension,” she commented.

“As a company that believes in the use of technology to support education, we sought the benefit immediately, and not to toot our own horn, we are one of the first companies to donate tablets to students at the start of the pandemic. These electronic whiteboards have a market value of over J$2.5 million. But we saw this as a most necessary investment in cutting-edge technology, and we thank you Buff Bay Primary for the opportunity to serve,” Williams said.

The donation outfits six of the 20 classrooms at Buff Bay Primary.

The donation of the Smart Boards was a joint initiative between Lifespan and the Universal Access Fund, which will provide free Wi-Fi access to the institution.

Meantime, Minister of Science, Energy and Technology, Daryl Vaz, commended Lifespan for what he described as a much-needed gesture as students are seeking to embrace not only the restart of face-to-face learning, but to also grasp the concept of online and e-learning.

“I want to thank wholeheartedly Lifespan for their generous support in providing these Smart Boards to Buff Bay Primary,” said Vaz.

“I urge other organisations to follow in the footsteps of Lifespan not just in Portland, but also to the rest of Jamaica. If every business, small, medium, and large, and the corporate giants just take time out to look around their surroundings where they operate, they can identify easily a school, a health clinic, a hospital – whatever it is. Just to go that extra mile to give back to the people that have supported their products day in and day out,” he concluded.

And Vice Principal of Buff Bay Primary, Keisha Braimbridge, expressed thanks for what she described as “wonderful gifs” that will allow students to access free Wi-Fi when using the Smart Board which she said will allow them to understand the lesson a lot easier.

“This will improve the learning experience of students while making teachers’ lives better. The boards will allow teachers and students to learn collaboratively, share files, access online resources, and use educational software. There are 20 classes at the school and we only have six whiteboards,” she said.