Digicel launches education plans to further support e-learning

In keeping with its pledge to keep everyone connected during Jamaica’s response to Coronavirus, Digicel has introduced the 14-day Education Plan - giving students access to their schools’ virtual learning sites.

Students at all levels can get extended access to online libraries, academic text books, publications and other learning materials, as part of Digicel’s commitment to widening the reach of its network to support educational continuity during this time.

Through a partnership between the Ministry of Education and Digicel, the 14-day Education Plan is available at a subsidised cost of $500, and includes 500 megabytes of data for other purposes.

A $100 Education Plan add-on is available for Digicel subscribers who are already on one of its regular plans.

“Enabling our future leaders to be able to seamlessly continue learning from home with access to the best online learning resources is very important to our efforts to keep Jamaica connected during this time,” commented Chief Operating Officer of Digicel Jamaica, Brian Bennett-Easy.

He noted, “We have collaborated with the Ministry of Education, Youth and Information, as well as the Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology, to include over 50 educational websites in the initial list, and we are prepared to make more additions based on requests from the Ministry.”

Digicel will also assist the Education Ministry with activating the Education Plan for 1,200 students who are registered under the PATH programme, as well as an add-on voice and data service for teachers.

Bennett-Easy gave the assurance that teachers and students will experience smooth plan activation and usage as a result of improvements to the company’s network capabilities.

He commented, ”As a provider of essential services to the public, we have a duty of care to keep our network running, while meeting the learning and development needs of the population. This is why we continue to invest in the expansion of our LTE network and broadband infrastructure to meet the changing needs our customers, especially during this time.”

In welcoming the initiative, Minister of State in the Ministry of Education Alando Terrelonge stated, “As a government, our mission throughout the COVID-19 crisis is to provide equal and undisturbed access to quality education. We welcome our partnership with Digicel and are confident that the new data package for students, with access to 60 zero-rated websites for tertiary and other students will aid us in that mission.”

Digicel says it continues to widen the reach of its digital learning platforms with access on its Home and Entertainment platform to a dedicated e-Learning Channel (channel 5) with other content coming soon, as well zero-rating and free subscription to the LearningHub.online platform for students at the PEP, CSEC and CAPE levels to learn remotely and keep abreast of the official school curriculum.

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