Exchange All Age principal, Lemmar Moncrieffe (left), and Oceanic Digital CEO, Craig McBurnett, in discussion after Oceanic presented a computer to the school last Thursday.

EXCHANGE, St Ann - Oceanic Digital, providers of MiPhone, last Thursday presented a computer to the Exchange All Age school in St Ann to assist in the institution's effort at training their students in information technology.

Although on midterm break, several students turned out to be part of the ceremony which saw Oceanic's chief executive officer, Craig McBurnett, handing over the computer to principal Lemmar Moncrieffe.

"Besides being a very important corporate citizen we want to be a very supportive civic citizen and we've chosen a way to express that by donating this computer to this school here today and you'll see many other similar type of efforts on our part," McBurnett told the Observer after the presentation.
According to him, the gift symbolises a lot of different things.

"Technology, like the cell phone is a tool; it's a tool that puts power in the people to help change things. And we believe if you give people the power to change things they will change things for the good, and nothing could be more important than to give these kids here today the power to learn, the power to experience what the computer can do for them. It opens up all sorts of door for them," he said.

The computer will help ease the burden of the lone computer at the institution, which Moncrieffe said served over 100 students.

However, he said at least 18 more computers are needed to enable the school to deal satisfactorily with the students' demand for computer classes.

Moncrieffe said the students' response to computer classes has been overwhelming, but because of the limited use of the single machine that was at the school before Oceanic's donation, the students' introduction to computer skills was very limited.

The new computer would go a far way in helping to change that, despite the need for several more, the principal said.
"What we are hoping to do, as the numbers increase, is to use the computer to assist in mathematics and reading," he disclosed.

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