Computer project progresses, but slowly
Another two instalments on that commitment to give schools five thousand internet ready computers were made today in Belize City. But despite the programme’s progress, I found that there’s still a long way to go.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
Today, Intelco engineers and programmers were hard at work in the city, putting the finishing touches on two computer labs, one at St. John’s Anglican…and another at Wesley Lower.
Kimano Barrow, Manager, Internet for Schools Project
“It’s special to us because it’s for the children. It might sound corny, but basically that’s what it is because it’s based for education. It’s something that we’re doing to try to demonstrate our good corporate citizen image.”
But after an initial flurry of activity, complete with respective area representatives promoting the project in their divisions, that corporate image has been taking direct hits, mainly due to time delays in implementation. According to Intelco’s Kimano Barrow, there are several reasons for the hold-up.
Kimano Barrow
“Minor things like the weather. You’d be surprised, but the weather has been a big set-back for us because it’s very… there were some days that we could do very little outside work. And just a day delay, sets back the project two three days at a time because then we have a specific day in a week that we are working with.”
Intelco’s partner in the project is the Government of Belize. The telecommunications company provides the hardware, G.O.B. handles the hardwood. But getting schools ready for the new equipment has been a challenge…with many institutions having to retrofit classrooms or even wait on new buildings to accommodate the labs. The Ministry of Finance has played a crucial role in finding the funds.
So far only children from the Belize district have benefited from the program.
K. Mustafa Touré, Min. of Education Computer Project
“Right now we can only proceed as fast as the Intelco network allows us to. So presently, we’re strictly dealing with the Belize District. We’ve done half of the schools in the Belize District, including the city and out district. As soon as we can, starting next year once the Intelco national grid gets into place, we’ll be going into Cayo, Orange Walk, Corozal and then down south. We may even go to south before we go up north. But it all depends on Intelco’s nationwide transmission grid.”
But Intelco says, not so.
Kimano Barrow
“We’re almost complete with Belize City, and we’ve been moving out into the districts as per the Ministry of Education’s directives. They are the ones that would choose what areas we go to next. They set the opening dates; they set what schools get what. We’re just facilitators.”
Janelle Chanona
“They were saying that they were just waiting for the dates and the schools from the Ministry of Education, you’re saying you’re waiting on them?”
K. Mustafa Touré
“Well actually, I guess we’re both waiting on each other. Once we have the grid, we can know which schools to go and get prepared… Until we can get the nationwide grid out to the other districts, that’s when we’ll start programming the schools to prepare. Many of the schools are going ahead and getting the school labs prepared; they are doing what they can do.”
Kimano Barrow
“The system we use for the Internet for Schools Project is completely separate from what will be used, because this is part of the Government network.”
And while the people in charge sort that out, in the classroom, the children are taking full advantage of their computer access.
Kimano Barrow
“Sometimes they might have an issue where somebody might turn something off and don’t know how to turn it back on. Those are most of the issues that they have currently. One of the laboratories, in one of the libraries had a problem where they couldn’t get it to come on because somebody turned it off. But nobody notices because nobody used that particular machine, the server machine, nobody uses it. So nobody realise that the lights were off, so there was no service. That’s the kind of problems we have with that.”
While Intelco maintains the internet connection and servers, the Ministry of Education looks after the machine maintenance.
Kimano Barrow
“Any of the operational hardware problems, we have a technician on our staff and we hope to increase them. And once they contact us, that technician comes out, looks after the problem.”
Intelco estimates by the second week in December, it would have outfitted all Belize City schools with computer labs. At that point, they say they’ll be ready to take on the other districts, depending of course, on readiness of the Ministry of Education.
The Internet for Schools Project was launched in January with a plan to install some five thousand computers in schools and libraries throughout the country.
