Jamaica’s Ministry of Education, Youth and Information on Monday has received 534 tablets for students with disabilities from UNICEF under the ‘One Laptop or Tablet Per Child’ initiative.
The tablets are aimed at providing students with disabilities with greater access to online learning. The first batch of more than 200 devices has already been delivered to children.
“The donation supports the Government’s drive to facilitate online learning by providing tablets to needy students across the island.” said Education Minister, Fayval Williams
“UNICEF has been a partner with Jamaica for a very long time, and we appreciate the knowledge that you bring [and] the projects that you have initiated. I’m sure when you look back over the years, you would have seen the impact that UNICEF has made, in particular in the education sector in Jamaica,” she noted.
Mrs. Williams said it is important that students with disabilities are enabled with devices to access the online world, as technology will continue to be a permanent part of the education sector.
UNICEF Jamaica Country Representative, Mariko Kagoshima, said that the organisation is happy to support special needs children during COVID-19.
She said that the virus has negatively impacted education across Latin America and the Caribbean, with data showing that with more than eight months into the pandemic, approximately 137 million children are out of school, representing 97 percent of children in the region.
“COVID crisis has done extremely well from my point of view because of the strong drive to allow children to access education through digital education. But you also have been very creative using television and radio, and then some tremendous teachers are going around,” she noted.
The One Laptop or Tablet per Child Initiative is designed to promote inclusivity in the education sector. It aims to provide needy students with the requisite tools to function in the online teaching and learning environment.
