Santa Cruz, St Elizabeth — The Jamaican education system is about to get a technological boost this academic year through a partnership with telecoms provider Digicel and Cyber School Technology Solutions (CSTS), according to a news release from the telecoms company.

Students and teachers of mathematics and the sciences at the CXC level will have access to course material online through tutorials developed by CSTS, the release said. These tutorial solutions, based on the partnership, will be accessible for the first time via a tablet at a low cost to subscribers, it said.

One of the first schools to embark on the initiative on a large scale, Hampton in Malvern, recently received the first batch of 800 tablets complete with the telecommunication company’s “lightning fast” 4G mobile data plan at significantly discounted rates.

Conrod Hanson, CEO of CSTS, says he is expecting great things from the partnership.

“The e-learning solutions that will be available to students and teachers will be accessible 24/7 via tablets to be provided by Digicel. This means students and teachers can work and study anytime and anywhere they want.” Hanson added that before Digicel came on board, the solutions were exclusively offered through agreement with schools and accessible only by a PC. “But now, any student or teacher anywhere in Jamaica can have access to the solutions via their tablets,” he said.

Digicel’s Distribution Director Patrick King emphasised the company’s commitment to infusing technology into education. “We are eager to see and hear great stories of how the tutorial will help to make learning more fun and engaging, while delivering even better academic performance and results for schools across Jamaica,” he said.

The news release said the e-learning programme developed by CSTS uses a blended approach to imparting knowledge which is a combination of the physical classroom and the virtual classroom. This allows the students to control the time, place, path, and/or pace at which the lesson is taught.