Please give Beersheba Primary broadband internet service

Monday, April 11, 2011

Dear Editor,

I wish to commend the Government of Jamaica, LIME and Flow for their innovation and thoughtfulness in entering into an agreement that will provide high-tech broadband internet service in Jamaican schools within 18 months.

In commending the parties named here, Beersheba Old Students' Association (BOSA) wishes to make a pitch for Beersheba Primary School, which is located in the remote farming peasant community of New Market in St Elizabeth. Mrs Grace McLean, chief education officer, and other educators and technocrats in the Ministry of Education are fully aware of the excellent academic performances over trhe years by students from Beersheba Primary School in the Grade Six Achievement Test and the continued excellent performance of these students at prestigious high schools where they have been placed by the ministry.

It is a sad commentary that although students from Beersheba Primary continue to do well academically, because they are not computer-literate, their self-esteem and self-worth are degraded when they are given assignments in high schools that involve the use of computers, only for teachers to be told that these bright students have never been exposed to or have had the opportunity to use computers. This unfortunate situation must not be allowed to continue at the school. It is towards correcting this undesirable and unfortunate situation that I urge and appeal to MP for NW St Elizabeth and Minister of State JC Hutchinson and Councillor Ernest Hendricks to join BOSA in being trailblazers who will lobby the government, LIME and Flow to ensure that Beersheba Primary is not left out in the cold and is placed on the priority list for the high-tech broadband internet service.

Vincent Samuels

Secretary/Treasurer BOSA

St Elizabeth