MoECST Commences Distribution of 5000 Chromebooks
The distribution of five thousand Chromebooks donated by the Republic of China (Taiwan) commenced today. These devices were pledged in April during the state visit of the President of the Republic of China (Taiwan), Doctor Tsai Ing-Wen, and were recently delivered to the Ministry of Education. The modern, lightweight, and portable computing devices are designed to enhance educational experiences and facilitate interactive learning. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
The distribution of election devices to be used for learning in the classrooms commenced today, with Belize City. Minister of Education says that it has been a part of Belize Education Sector Plan 2020-2025 that focuses on access to technology for students across the country.
Francis Fonseca
Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education
“As you all know, we launched the ConnectED project so we wanted to ensure that our schools across the country had access to reliable internet services. That has been a huge success. We’ve expanded reliable internet services to over two hundred schools across the country over the last two years and we want to compliment that with devices, giving our students devices. So when the president of Taiwan came to Belize and we met with her as a cabinet, we raised that issue with her and we said we wanted digital devices to give to our students. They came through with a donation of five thousand devices and we are now distributing those devices across the country.”
Six schools were issues devices today, including Saint Joseph Primary School and All Saints Primary School. They were chosen based on need by a technical team and is for upper division, standards four, five and six. For All Saints, the donation of the devices complements their digital learning experience.
Colin Estrada
Colin Estrada, Principal, All Saints Primary School
“The last time the media was here, we had a handing over of projectors and so at present we have all classes, except infant one and infant two that has projectors installed. And so, what will happen is that this will lend and just add to the digital classes that we give, whereby teachers will be able to use the laptops with students and then also we are a part of the coding code so that will also help in that area where students will be able to do the code in the classrooms.”
This morning, eight-six devices were distributed to four primary schools within the Fort George Division.
Henry Charles Usher
Henry Charles Usher, Area Representative, Fort George
“So it is Ebenezer, Queen Street Baptist, Saint Mary’s and Holy Redeemer.”
Duane Moody
“A total of how many will benefit from this?”
Henry Charles Usher
“I don’t know the exact total, but the biggest total is Holy Redeemer – that has the biggest school population so I think they are getting fifty-six devices. There are twelve devices here at Ebenezer and I believe it is around the same amount at Queen Street Baptist and Saint Mary’s.”
For Teacher Dina Avila of Ebenezer Primary School and Acting Principal Carol Flowers of Saint Mary’s Primary School, the donation will help in bridging the digital divide.
Dina Avila
Dina Avila, Teacher, Ebenezer Primary School
“We have the new curriculum which is competency-based and we are trying to incorporate a lot of hands on. And also our science has been changed to science and technology so we are trying to incorporate technology, but as you may know, different parents have different struggles and so we are not able to really have each student bring a technological device in the class. So these Chromebooks are going to be very helpful. They allow us the Google Suite and with the Google Suite, we can introduce Google docs, Google PowerPoint which is a new way of them doing presentation to move away from posters. And to be honest, everything is moving in the direction of technology.”
Carol Flowers
Carol Flowers, Acting Principal, St. Mary’s Primary School
“It was amazing when I got the call to say that our students would have received it. We are in a technological era so this will help to enhance education here at Saint Mary’s.”
Duane Moody
“Twelve you guys got? How will it be used?”
Carol Flowers
“We’ll have to work it out, but I am sure that the teachers will work together with the children to share, maybe when they are in the classrooms. I don’t know about taking it home, but we will figure it out because it is something that we definitely need.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
