Full roll-out of Tablet in Schools project soon

The Government will shortly do a full roll-out of the Tablets in Schools initiative, following a successful pilot stage of the programme.

Making the disclosure in the 2017-18 Sectoral Debate in the House on April 18, Minister of Science, Energy and Technology Dr Andrew Wheatley said e-Learning Jamaica has done a reassessment of the project, and Cabinet will examine a submission on work carried out by the company for its continuation.

He said "fundamental" changes have been made to the structure of the Tablets in Schools programme.

"The new structure will see distribution of over 17,000 tablets to more than 1,000 infant and primary schools," the minister said.

He added that the beneficiary schools will adopt a "class set" and "bring your own device approach" to the use of the tablets. "This approach will also allow us to implement greater security measures to curb access to unfavourable sites," Wheatley said.

PROMOTING VIRTUAL LEARNING

He told the House that e-Learning Jamaica is using information and communications technology (ICT) solutions to promote the use of a virtual learning environment (VLE) among students doing Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate examinations.

He also reported that some 274 teachers were recently trained in the use of Microsoft products and on-site professional development by e-Learning, and that the company embarked on a comprehensive public education campaign to promote the use of ICT in education delivery.