On Monday, October 12th, more than 700 students of the Dominica Grammar School received their tablets.
Minister for Education, Peter Saint Jean, Minister for Information, Science, Telecommunications and Technology, Kelver Darroux and Chief Education Officer, Melena Fontaine were all present at the short ceremony at the grounds of the Dominica Grammar School to present the devices.
Hon. Kelver Darroux is very optimistic about the programme’s impact despite the criticism.
“Our students in this country will have the opportunity to keep up with technology,” he said.
Naomi Francis, a 2nd former told GIS News, “I don’t think we should look for the bad ion things, we should look for the good; not all children look for bad. If our parents help us and supervise us, we will be able to use it for good.
The Hon. Peter Saint Jean sees education as more important than basic needs as education allows for the provision of those basic necessities of life.
He says the devices are part of the Dominica Labour Party’s commitment to provide quality education to the youth of the nation.
Over 3,000 students have already received their devices.
“Allow me to inform and advise that as of 1pm a total of 3,189 secondary school students around Dominica will have received their tablets. We will continue throughout next week to ensure that every secondary school student and every student of the Dominica State College, by the end of next week, will have received the tablets hat we promised because we believe that it is an important tool to ensure that you succeed,” he said
“I feel happy because I have a device which will help me with my school work..if we do something in class which I don’ understand, I can research it,” said Monette Mondesire.
Chris Martin said, “If we have assignments and somebody is sick, they can get homework via email to still catch up with the rest of the class.”
More schools around the city will receive their devices in the days ahead.