To­day, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion dis­trib­uted 2,018 lap­tops to five pri­ma­ry and six­ty-nine (69) sec­ondary school prin­ci­pals. The Min­istry be­gan the dis­tri­b­u­tion in prepa­ra­tion for the aca­d­e­m­ic year 2021/22. Ac­cord­ing to the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion, the de­vices will be pro­vid­ed to stu­dents whose par­ents/guardians com­plet­ed the Means Test. Par­ent/guardians will be re­quired to sign the Agree­ment for As­sign­ment of De­vices up­on re­ceipt. The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion:

In prepa­ra­tion for aca­d­e­m­ic year 2021/22, the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion (MoE) be­gun the dis­tri­b­u­tion of lap­tops pur­chased by the Gov­ern­ment of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go (GORTT). At a cer­e­mo­ny at the Ed­u­ca­tion Tow­ers on Mon­day 5th Ju­ly 2021, Dr. the Ho­n­ourable Nyan Gads­by- Dol­ly, Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion and the Ho­n­ourable Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian, Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion were joined by Sen­a­tor the Hon­or­able Allyson West Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Dig­i­tal Trans­for­ma­tion in a sym­bol­ic pre­sen­ta­tion of lap­tops to Prin­ci­pals.

Through­out the day (Ju­ly 5, 2021), two thou­sand and eigh­teen (2,018) lap­tops were dis­trib­uted to five (5) pri­ma­ry and six­ty- nine (69) sec­ondary school prin­ci­pals, rep­re­sent­ing five (5) Ed­u­ca­tion School Dis­tricts.
The Ho­n­ourable Lisa Mor­ris-Ju­lian, Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion opened the press con­fer­ence and con­tex­u­al­ized the event in terms of where the MoE start­ed eleven months ago, with the Adopt-a- School Pro­gramme.

This pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ship con­tin­ues to be a holis­tic re­sponse to the need for de­vices for stu­dents, and ac­cord­ing to Min­is­ter Mor­ris-Ju­lian, this next phase will aid in the “dig­i­ti­za­tion of every school.”

Sen­a­tor the Hon­or­able Allyson West, Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Dig­i­tal Trans­for­ma­tion pledged full sup­port for the ini­tia­tive, “The Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and Dig­i­tal Trans­for­ma­tion has been work­ing close­ly with the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion to both se­cure de­vices and to en­sure that the plat­form on which ed­u­ca­tion is pro­vid­ed, go­ing for­ward, is ro­bust and suit­ed to the needs of the chil­dren.

I would like to en­cour­age the prin­ci­pals, teach­ers and stu­dents to get cre­ative, the lap­top is not on­ly a tool on which you sit at home or in the class­room and learn in the stan­dard way, it gives you the op­por­tu­ni­ty to broad­en your hori­zons to change how you learn and teach.”

Be­fore sym­bol­i­cal­ly pre­sent­ing the first set of Gov­ern­ment pro­cured lap­tops, Dr. the Ho­n­ourable Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly, Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion, thanked the cor­po­rate donors in the Adopt-a-School Pro­gramme and ex­plained, “to­day we are start­ing the Gov­ern­ment pro­cured lap­top dis­tri­b­u­tion process, which tran­scends sim­ply pro­vid­ing de­vices.

It is al­so about the train­ing which has been in­stru­men­tal in help­ing our teach­ers wield the dig­i­tal tools well. De­vice pro­cure­ment en­sures that all our stu­dents can move in the di­rec­tion of the ed­u­ca­tion sec­tor both glob­al­ly and in Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

The de­vices will be pro­vid­ed to stu­dents whose par­ents/guardians com­plet­ed the Means Test. Par­ent/guardians will be re­quired to sign the Agree­ment for As­sign­ment of De­vices up­on re­ceipt. Of the 20,000 de­vices pur­chased, the first tranche to­talling 4,000 was re­ceived on June 24th, 2021, with an­oth­er ship­ment of 4,320 de­vices ex­pect­ed to ar­rive with­in the sec­ond week of Ju­ly 2021.