Dr Keith Rowley has identified drawbacks of the People's Partnership laptop programme. He cited inadequate teacher-training, insufficient IT technical staff, no plan for integrating PCs into the classroom and no feedback as regards the efficacy of the programme. He promised to bring sanity into the programme if a PNM administration is voted into office.
Let us not throw the baby out with the bath water. The laptop programme is a very good project. Founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, in his book Business at the Speed of Thought, identified many advantages of PC in the classroom.
PCs can reach many educational goals of collaborative learning, critical thinking and lifelong learning skills. They can have a profound effect in a technology-driven curriculum.
He further stressed that it can break the cycle of poverty if our students go prepared into the digital world. It's a break from the chalk and talk. A PowerPoint presentation can spark a student's interest in the subject by including photos, film clips and links to Internet pages. This is the normal infrastructure of a paperless technology-driven classroom of the 21st century. Don't we want our kids to be technology savvy?
The problem with the present laptop programme, like most programmes introduced by the Ministry, is providing adequate training. Teachers do not want to be thrown into something for which they have not had the opportunity to be fully prepared. There is not a coherent programme to integrate the PCs into the curriculum.
What needs to be done is simply to begin a robust programme of training. The present administration can reverse the negative effects of the UWI study if they make serious changes to the programme.
Dr Rowley, we want to ensure the students most at risk in depressed areas can at least be prepared for this knowledge-based world.
You would never say the programme is a good one but list all the disadvantages of it. Let's hope that you keep it if you get into government and not throw it away with the bath water.
John Jessamy
Fyzabad