Charlieville primary schools gets state-of-the-art computer lab

Jack Warner, Tim Gopeesingh, School Principal Indra Siew and standard 5 student Ruby Damaris Seebrat get ready to cut the ribbon to open the computer lab at the Durham Village Hindu School. In Photo below, Ruby shows the adults that she is not intimidated by the new technology

Two cabinet ministers - Education Minister Tim Gopeesingh and Works and Transport Minister Jack Warner - were at the Durham Village Hindu School in Charlieville, in central Trinidad Wednesday morning to formally open a new $100,000 computer lab that has been made available through corporate donors.

The lab consists of eleven computers, complete with educational software and a main server.

In a brief address before cutting the ribbon to formally open the lab, Gopeesingh praised the donors and his cabinet colleague for the foresight in establishing the lab. He promised that the People's Partnership government will ensure that through education they would become "the best citizens".

Gopeesingh said the idea of introducing computers into the primary school system is in line with the government's computer program for secondary school students. 

He noted that there are 338 primary schools in Trinidad and Tobago that have functioning computer labs with between eight and 15 computers in each lab. Most have Internet connections, he said. He added that his ministry is working have all schools fully equipped with the technology.

With respect to secondary schools the minister said all of them have computer labs and 20,000 students and 3,200 teachers have been given computers. In addition at least 1,000 teachers have been trained to teach computer technology.

Gopeesingh also thanked the project leader for the lab, Civil Aviation Director General Ramesh Lutchmedial. He urged the pupils and their teachers to make use of the lab to benefit from the world of education at their fingertips.

Warner, who is also the MP for the area, thanked both Gopeesingh and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar for their commitment to technology education for children. 

He said no other prime minister and no other education minister have done as much for education as Gopeesingh and Persad-Bissessar to make children computer literate.

He said he is happy to see the new lab for the school, which had suffered from neglect and perennial problems with flooding. He noted that he made sure he fixed the infrastructure to end those problems and added the computer lab is a next logical step to improving things for the school and its students.

Warner said computers at the primary level is a logical component of the government's plan to equip every high school student with a computer, since pupils would be exposed to the technology at an earlier age and be ready to utilise computers in a more meaningful way when they get to high school.

He said he hopes all primary schools would have similar labs and added that he wants Durham Hindu School to be the flagship institution for the literacy initiative he launched with the computer lab.

Warner also praised Lutchmedial for his help, noting that when he asked him to help with the project he went right into it without hesitation.

Both Warner and Gopeesingh commended the children for their enthusiastic welcome, especially for the manner in which they all sang the national anthem. Warner was particularly impressed with that and the bhajan they sang, invoking the blessings of the Hindu deity, Durga.

Both ministers were welcomed with the familiar sound of tassa, with children from the school beating the traditional Indian drums.