"The former prime minister noted that this country climbed in terms of global ranking because of the laptop programme." Please, someone, tell me, is that a reason to spend taxpayers' money wantonly and distribute laptops haphazardly?
That programme was a colossal waste of resources done with the chief aim of garnering political support. It was a populist move and another of the excesses and vanity projects of that government. Had the former maladministration consulted with the IT technicians and teachers, a vastly different, meaningful approach would have been adopted. But then again that would not float someone's boat.
We have a political culture whereby intent and actions are justified because other countries have done so. A copycat, knee jerk system! The distribution of laptops should have been done on a needs basis. That could have been ascertained quite easily on registration day. There is also a downside to that because in many instances the needy ones do not have access to the Internet at home. Be that as it may, the next logical step was to expand and upgrade the IT rooms. Also, there was a need for all classrooms to be WIFI compliant. Did those things happen?
I can testify without the fear of contradiction to the abuse and misuse of the computers. In spite of all the safeguards built and added into the computers, students were still able to bypass same and load unto their computers all manner of obscenities, games etc.
And you know what–the students who did those things already had computers at home! I am in full support of the ministry's change in policy and we all look forward to a more enhanced, efficient and effective programme that would redound to the ultimate benefit of the students.
Sahadeo Ragoonanan,
Princes Town