Some 613 students of the Sir Clifford Campbell Primary School in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland were among those receiving tablet computers under the Government’s ‘Tablets in Schools’ pilot programme in October 2014.

The programme is being implemented by e-Learning Jamaica, an agency of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining.

Implementation Officer with e-Learning Jamaica, Catherina Patterson said the exercise went smoothly. “The students are loving their tablets…they are very happy,” she said.

She said Sir Clifford Campbell Primary was selected as one of 38 schools to be part of the pilot project, under which 25,000 tablets will be distributed.

Ms Patterson said a number of schools are still to receive devices including Herbert Morrison Technical and Cambridge High in St. James and several others in the Corporate Area.

She said the project is aimed at revolutionising how children learn in Jamaica, by infusing greater levels of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT).

“From what I have noticed, the old fashion chalk and talk approach to teaching is not in tune with today’s society, because we know that the kids today are very tech-savvy. This initiative is helping them to enhance their learning abilities… it is going to help quite a lot from the basic school level up to the teachers’ colleges,” Ms. Patterson said.

Meanwhile, Principal of Sir Clifford Campbell Primary, Lorna Gooden, said the institution is pleased to have been selected for the pilot programme.

“I believe that all of our students will now have access to unlimited information of a similar quality…regardless of where they live. This will greatly enhance the learning process and students will now be able to learn both in and out of the formal education structure…homework will be completed and they will be able to experiment and this will enhance their creativity and maximize their learning potential,” she contended.

Since September 2014, some 4,000 tablet computers have been distributed under the Government’s $1.4 billion pilot project. It targets 24,000 students and 1, 200 teachers, 13 primary, 12 high schools, six pre-primary, five all-age and junior high schools, one teacher’s college, and one special education institution.

A review of the pilot project is expected to be done within a year and based on the result, the project will be rolled out in other institutions across the island, with an additional 600,000 students and teachers set to benefit.

(Adapted from the Jamaica Information Service)