Daughter encourages businessman to donate tablets to Beetham school

Christyana Singh, daughter of businessman Dave Singh, encouraged her father to donate 30 electronic learning devices to the East Port of Spain Development Company Ltd (EPOS).

They were distributed to the Excel Beetham Estate Primary School on Wednesday.

In a statement, the EPOS said Christyana was inspired after witnessing the first handover to the school by the EPOS on the news in October.

The devices were donated by Minister of Housing and Urban Development Pennelope Beckles, on behalf of the EPOS.

It said Singh believed the donation was a “refreshing reminder of the human spirit,” adding that wealth is sharing to improve the lives of everyone and that his daughter’s kindness reflected his family’s philosophy on life.

Beckles noted the importance of digital intervention for children, who, she said, are now part of a “catastrophic education emergency worldwide due to covid19.”

She said a hybrid system will support the local student population.

The statement said, “Minister Beckles also cited a March 2021 UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) report that schools for more than 168 million children globally have been completely closed for almost an entire year due to covid19 lockdowns.

“Additionally, around 214 million children globally – or one in seven – have missed more than three-quarters of their in-person learning and 14 countries worldwide have remained largely closed since March 2020-February 2021. Two-thirds of those countries are in Latin America and the Caribbean.”

Beckles presented the tablets to Akeira George on behalf of the Excel Beetham Primary School.