Education Secretary: Most Tobago students have online learning devices

THA Secretary of Education, Innovation and Energy Marslyn Melville-Jack has claimed most of the students in Tobago have devices to carry out the online curriculum.

The Ministry of Education began online learning in September 2020 as one of the measures to prevent the spread of covid19.

But there have been some challenges with fully executing the initiative in both Trinidad and Tobago, as some students are still without laptops and other devices.

Last September, the THA approved $7.8 million to buy devices for needy students.

In April, seven months into the online curriculum, Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly revealed a total of 35, 448 students in primary and secondary schools were still without devices.

At that time, she said the ministry was expected to receive a batch of 20,000 laptops. But parents and guardians of students without devices were asked to complete and submit a means-test form by the end of April in order to get a device.

At the post-executive council media briefing on Wednesday, Melville-Jack claimed: “Most students on the island are in possession of a device or have access to a device.”

She said the division ensured that schools were provided with them through the principal.

“It is now the responsibility of every parent to liaise with the principals of their schools to ensure that they respond to the need.

“So we do not go into schools to find out how many persons are without devices. We depend on the information that comes to us from the principals, because these devices are contracted to the school through the principal. So that is our arrangement.”

She said and any other arrangement, as far as students and their access to devices are concerned, is simply one between the principal and the parent.