Dear Editor,
I travelled to Charity, Essequibo this week-end, in time for its traditional Monday Market Day to reach out to residents and shoppers with affordable laptop technologies I embarked on making accessible especially for school children. Laptops have become a game changer for children preparing for examinations who also have to do the multitude of SBAs which often number as many as the actual subjects themselves. They also allow easy download of syllabuses for subjects, which are an indispensable guide for children to evaluate what they have done and what they need to spend more time on, in addition to the many online teaching aids for more challenging topics. Parents are also encouraged to have their children work past exam papers as these place children in an exam setting where they have to think, formulate their ideas and write (no typing for working past papers) these in a structured, logical and meaningful manner to demonstrate mastery of the topic. Parents working with their children are encouraged to note that it is important that children cover the topics in the respective syllabus before attempting past exam papers, since it will be a futile, discouraging exercise for children to try to answer questions about which they have no knowledge. Children should also have access to recommended textbooks which cover the material in the syllabus. It is next to impossible to obtain good grades without textbooks at hand. A lot of time can be wasted capturing material from the internet which does not respond to the demands of the requirements of the subject syllabus. Children are also encouraged to do regular self-study and/or work in groups for more challenging areas as this latter aspect encourages self-expression and collective learning while building self-confidence. Such groups however should be genuinely be study-oriented and not simply chat sessions.
Having spent a fair bit of time on available laptop specifications, parents are encouraged to invest in laptops which have at least 8 GB of DDR4 technology for RAM, with base Intel CPU specifications of at least 2.3-2.4 GHz clock speed, and at least a Solid State Drive (SSD hard drive). Such machines are better able to handle the growing demand evolving software has on both hard drives and RAM space, and should endure software upgrades for at least another four to eight years. I decided recently to make Touch Screen technology available, but this can be fairly expensive in some stores. Of course there are still laptops with DDR3 technology, but these even with equivalent 8 GB or 16 GB of RAM, are significantly slower than laptops with DDR4 technology. Parents are therefore urged to be careful to enquire and see in black and white the specifications of whatever laptop they are interested in purchasing for their children. Consideration should also be given to available warranty options, since more often than not laptops may need to have their batteries, chargers, keyboards, even screens replaced over time. In Guyana it is nearly impossible to access parts for purchased laptops anywhere except from the supplier of the laptop.
Yours faithfully,
Craig Sylvester