PM: Don’t want a laptop? Just say so

PRIME Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar says the distribution of digital devices such as laptops and tablets should not be determined through means tests, as they are far too subjective.

She made the statement while responding to questions at the post-cabinet press briefing at the Red House, Port of Spain on May 29.

“I found the means test to be very subjective. I believe every child is entitled to a laptop unless the parents don’t want it.

“This is the age of technology. This is the age of the computer. Our children have been left in the dump for ten or nine years when they killed that programme.”

She shared anecdotes of people approaching her, thanking her for the laptop programme introduced in 2010.

“They actually brought the laptops and showed me that they still had the laptop. Another one told me: ‘look, I am going to UWI and I am still using this laptop.”

Asked about other programs such as the Government Assistance for Tuition Expenses (GATE) programme, text book rental programmes and the book grant facilities, Persad-Bissessar they are also top priority.

“Anything to do with education is top priority for us,” she said.

The reintroduction of the laptop distribution programme was one of the campaign promises of the UNC and its coalition of interest partners during in the lead up to the April 28 general election.

Persad-Bissessar said the Minister of Education was working on restarting the programme to provide laptops to children entering secondary school.

She addressed criticism on the laptop issue, saying that people who are against the policy do not have to partake in it.

“I have noticed that some people are against the laptops (programme), therefore, I will issue instructions next week: If your child wrote SEA and is heading to form one in September and you do not want your child to get a laptop, because you are against the policy, please inform the principal at their primary school so the information can be forwarded to the ministry of education.

“We don’t want to purchase laptops that won’t be used,” she said.