The Jamaica Labour Party has increased its call for an independent audit of the Tablets in Schools Project by writing to the Auditor General of Jamaica asking for her office’s urgent intervention.

The letter, signed by Opposition Spokesperson for ICT and Digital Development Dr Andrew Wheatley and Opposition Spokesperson on Education and Youth Senator Kamina Johnson Smith, requested action in the context of the Auditor General’s stated mission to conduct independent audits and make reports to improve the use of public resources and…to ensure that public sector financial transactions and other operations are conducted with due regard to economy, efficiency, effectiveness, the environment and the avoidance of fraud.

“The Opposition believes in the benefits technology can bring to our students, teachers and ultimately to our nation. We also believe, however, that Jamaica can ill afford to spend billions of dollars on a project that may be poorly conceived and does not deliver value for money,” the spokespersons said in a release.

They explained that the request was made in the context of several concerns regarding the manner in which the billion-dollar project was implemented

“Despite the significant expenditure, no feasibility study was conducted prior to the project, and to this date, neither the Parliament nor the people of Jamaica have been told of any targets, key performance indicators or monitoring frameworks implemented.”

The spokespersons also revealed concerns about news of sub-optimal tablet security features, poor usage monitoring, inadequate teacher training, poor Internet capacity, and content costs in conjunction with the failure to bring online the Central Repository for Educational Material (CREM) which is viewed as a key component of the project.

The Opposition spokespersons stated that the people of Jamaica are entitled to know whether the project has been run properly and if Jamaican

tax payers are getting value for money.