UNC PRO: 'Reject laptop pappyshow'

PUBLIC relations officer of the Opposition United National Congress (UNC) Dr Kirk Meighoo is calling on the nation to reject as a "pappyshow" the eduction minister's announcement of the distribution of 7,000 laptops to student and teachers.

Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly made the announcement during a video address to students and parents which was uploaded to social media on Sunday evening, hours before the start of the new school year on Monday.

But in a press release on Tuesday, Meighoo called it "PNM pappyshow politics of the very worst kind."

When he came into office in 2015, Meighoo said, the Prime Minister terminated the ministry's distribution of free laptops to students who had sat the SEA exam. The reason, he added, was simply because this distribution was started by the Kamla Persad-Bissessar government.

He said that from its launch in 2010, at Success Laventille Secondary School, and during her term in office, Persad-Bissessar oversaw the distribution of over 95,000 laptops to students, and 4,000 to teachers, principals and school supervisors.

This digital education programme which the UNC built was dismantled by the Rowley regime, Meighoo said, adding that it was ironic that Gadsby-Dolly was now talking about giving 7,000 laptops to students and teachers.

Meighoo claimed that only days after the August 2020 general election – which the PNM won – Gadsby-Dolly held a press conference begging the private sector to donate laptops to students even though her leader oversaw the dismantling of the laptop programme after the PNM came into power in 2015.

"She indicated that approximately 65,000 students did not have access to devices or resources to engage in online learning, but forgot to say that this was because her prime minister abruptly terminated the programme in 2015," Meighoo said in his release.

He added that even after acknowledging the dire need for laptops to enable the stay-at-home learning which was required during the 2020 covid lockdown, Gadsby-Dolly said the Government was merely “considering” providing “some devices” to students “in need,” and that this consideration would be brought to Cabinet.

They were in no rush to do anything about it as a government, he insisted.

"Now, more than two years later, at the beginning of this school term, she proudly announces that 7,000 laptops will be distributed 'from this week' to students who are 'means-tested.'”

This he said, was a slap in the face of students and their parents who have had to face severe challenges purposely imposed on them by Rowley by the dismantling of the programme in 2015.

Meighoo alleged that the "means test" by which the 7,000 laptops would be given out was another way of saying the Government would discriminate in favour of PNM supporters.

"Now that Dr Rowley has had a change of heart about the need for laptops for students, he must explain why he changed his mind and why he deprived so many students since 2015," Meighoo said.

As part of the "pappyshow," the government was reintroducing – in piecemeal form – the same UNC programmes that they cut in 2015, Meighoo said.

"This small laptop distribution announced by Gadsby-Dolly is not serious, and only just scratched the surface, leaving the bulk of the problem to continue and fester. Her announcement is too little, too late. It lacks all sincerity and credibility," he added.