Laptop distribution to be completed in one month: Gopeesingh

Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh told reporters Wednesday 79 schools have so far received laptop computers promised by the new People's Partnership government to every student who entered secondary schools at the start of the school year last September.

Gopeesingh said the distribution of the computers will resume on Thursday and gave the assurance that the project would be completed in one month.

He also announced that his ministry plans to conduct an assessment of the impact of the computers.

The minister also added that more than 1,000 teachers, supervisors and principals have received training on the use of laptops in the curriculum.

“We are doing a monitoring and evaluation now to see what has been happening in the schools since the students received their laptops and to ensure the mechanism we put into place, the practice will be implemented within the school population,” Gopeesingh told the media.

Gopeesingh also talked about discussions he had with representatives of denominational schools, noting that they outlined several challenges they currently face, including school repairs, human resource management, security, Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Centres and the filling of vacancies at schools.

The minister promised to deal with all the problems and described as “untenable” the situation with respect to vacant positions for heads of departments, deans, special teachers, principals and vice-principals. He noted that these appointments are handled by the Teaching Service Commission, which is an independent institution over which the government has no jurisdiction.

The minister said he met six weeks ago with the TSC and based on those discussions he is looking forward to speedy resolutions of “constant and nagging problems.”

Gopeesingh said he asked the boards to provide a “priority listing” of schools for repairs and/or reconstruction, and provide submissions for revision of the primary school curriculum before the public consultation on January 25-26.

The ministry has proposal that underpopulated schools to be used to accommodate Early Childhood Care and Education Centres.  

Gopeesingh provided the boards with a list of the schools being considered for the centres and said the ministry and boards agreed to undertake a join study to determine the needs of communities with respect to the need for early childhood centres in the primary schools.