Some 450 student teachers will each receive a laptop under the government’s One Laptop Per Teacher (OLPT) initiative, which was launched yesterday.
The hundreds of teachers gathered yesterday at the Cyril Potter College of Education included those from the Tain campus who were able to tune into the event via a live stream that was set up by the e-Governance Unit. The event was held to commemorate World Teachers’ Day.
Speaking at the event, President David Granger said the imitative was first conceptualised more than five years ago after he had donated a laptop to a teacher from a village in the Rupununi. “…When I visited that village again she told me how she had put her laptop to use in preparing her lessons plan. She was very grateful and happy that she got the laptop,” he said, explaining that after that he would gather other devices and donate to teachers. He said from that moment he had decided that he would ensure every teacher received a laptop.
“When I was mistakenly invited to the 78th Convocation of the Cyril Potter College in 2012, I promised every student teacher a laptop,” Granger recalled. He thanked Ambassador to Guyana from the People’s Republic of China Zhang Limin for helping change the project from One Laptop per Family to OLPT.
Granger pointed out that while the world has entered the information age where ICT is revolutionizing education and the way information is disseminated, Guyana needs to catch up.
“I don’t see information technology as a luxury, as an option. It is a necessity and any government that wants an educated population has to look on information technology as an obligation, not an option,” Granger charged, emphasizing that his government is committed to expanding the ICT sector and having all Guyanese access the internet. He added that there will be internet connectivity in every school, government building, airport, bank, hospital, police station, post office and university.
Minister of Telecom-munications Catherine Hughes stated that over the last three weeks more than 100 educational institutions and organizations have been connected to the government’s fibre optic network. “In one short year, we have been able to provide internet access to five regional development offices, both university campuses and ten technical/vocational institutes in regions 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 and they are connected to the government network,” Hughes said, pointing to the livestream from the Tain Campus.
She said the launch of the programme gives the teachers the important tool to work with and is a vital component of the government’s all-encompassing programme to raise the national level of digital literacy and improve internet connectivity. “We began a public programme to set up ICT hubs across Guyana,” she said, pointing out that they have started in Berbice and have stretched to the East Coast, East Bank and Linden. “The technicians and engineers are… moving quickly to carry out the mandate that was handed to my ministry,” she added, explaining that while they have to set up the infrastructure, there is also a need for training so that the citizens can take full advantage of the services. She explained that there will be three tech support centres set up in Anna Regina, Linden and New Amsterdam. “They will be first respondent teams equipped to fix any minor problems that will emerge… We are at the beginning of quite an exciting journey,” Hughes added.
“For us, education is the gateway to active participation for the development of Guyana at an equally fast pace. We have to catch up and we have got to keep up,” she said, stating that the only way to catch up and keep up is to have the same tools and be on the same platform.
The Chinese Ambassa-dor also gave brief remarks on the initiative.
Some of the laptops were handed over yesterday and the rest will be distributed during the course of next week with each of the 166 students who formed the top 1% of passes in this year’s National Grade Six Assessment also receiving one.
