MOE’s Tablets for High Schoolers are Here!
The first batch of the long awaited computer tablets are in country. The country-wide distribution for secondary schools began on Thursday and will continue into next week. As we’ve reported, the Ministry of Education is distributing the electronic devices to all high schools and today, ministry officials handed over tablets to the high schools in the Belize District. This first round of distribution will see five thousand students, who are most in need, receive the gadgets to help them with distance learning. In total, the ministry says that some fifteen thousand tablets will be distributed by the end of next month.
Patrick Faber, Minister of Education
“It really is a game changer for education but it is also something that will seriously change the game in the overall situation in Belize. These devices will certainly bridge the digital divide for our students but they will also bridge the digital divide for the wider population that now even in the most remote parts of our country they will have a digital device to be able to do all sorts of things. E-learning, yes, but also the e-government services that are sure to come; e-commerce – everything electronic these students will now have a device and their family will have access to these device that can get them access to these services.”
Patrick Faber
Andrea Polanco
“How many schools are benefitting, minister?”
Patrick Faber
“All secondary schools in the country are benefitting from this initiative – from the north the south. Every single one of our fifty-plus high schools are benefitting in this first batch of distribution of five thousand devices we are focusing on those students in first and fourth forms who had indicated via a survey months ago that they are in need of a device. So, they are being first served but we are confident that the other devices should arrive in country before the end of November and so all fifteen thousand plus of those devices should be distributed before the close of the calendar year.”
Reporter
“In terms of the security of those devices – talk to us about that?”
Patrick Faber
“All of the devices carry a serial number and there is a contract for the distribution of these devices with the schools between the schools and the ministry of education. The schools in turn will sign a contract with the individual students and their parents and so they will be assigned a device based on that serial number. If anything happens to that device then that issue will be between the student and the school and of course they will work on those issues. The device all carry a warranty and so they will be advised as to how to not breach the warranty so that if something goes wrong – we don’t expect it to – but if it does they can be taken to the provider and it can be repaired and so on. We expect that these devices can last the student the lifetime that they are in secondary school.”
