Technology minister says element of cost-sharing in Tablets in School programme

Hon. Phillip Paulwell, Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining presents a tablet to a student of Rennock Lodge All Age School at the recent distribution exercise. Sharing in the moment are (from left) Neil Abrahams of Innovative Corporate Solutions, the company contracted to provide the tablets at the school; Mayor of Kingston and chairman of the school board Angela Brown-Burke; principal of the school Jacqueline Lewis; and the child’s mother.
Hon. Phillip Paulwell, Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining presents a tablet to a student of Rennock Lodge All Age School at the recent distribution exercise. Sharing in the moment are (from left) Neil Abrahams of Innovative Corporate Solutions, the company contracted to provide the tablets at the school; Mayor of Kingston and chairman of the school board Angela Brown-Burke; principal of the school Jacqueline Lewis; and the child’s mother.

MINISTER OF Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, Hon. Phillip Paulwell has said parents will be required to pay for the tablets received by their children when the full roll-out of the Tablets in School Programme gets under way.

“It will not be as fully funded as it is today. There will be an element of cost-sharing,” Minister Paulwell told Parliament in October.

“This project, the pilot, is costing us $1.4 billion. We have about 600,000 students. The Government is prepared to stand the cost of the content for the device, but a device will run you about $25,000. The books that parents buy for students now, which will be on the tablet, that money you can save and contribute to the cost of the project going forward,” Minister Paulwell said.

The pilot is being financed through the Universal Service Fund, which represents money collected by way of a levy on the termination of overseas telephone calls in Jamaica, originating from overseas.

(Adapted from The Gleaner)

 

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