High Commission of Canada partners with City Life to provide much-needed tablets to inner city communities
KINGSTON, Jamaica — The High Commission of Canada along with local government officials and community leaders presented 24 learning tablets to homeschool clusters in three inner-city communities — Parade Gardens, Tivoli Gardens and Waterhouse — today.
The commission said the tablets will enable students to engage in virtual educational programmes as part of a project implemented by the City Life organisation and funded by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives.
City Life organisation was awarded funding under the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives to establish homeschool clusters for disadvantaged young girls and boys whose education has been disrupted by COVID-19. Over 70 children will benefit from the use of the tablets through the programme, which facilitates home-schooling, distance learning and addresses the learning inequalities brought on by COVID-19.
High Commissioner of Canada to Jamaica, Laurie Peters, at a brief handover ceremony held earlier today in the Parade Gardens community, described the Canada-funded project as being vital to support parents and students being affected by COVID-19.
“The High Commission of Canada is delighted to partner with City Life to support these much-needed homeschool clusters. City Life organisation, much like the other recipients of the 2020 edition of the Canada Fund, has focused efforts on the many impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic that communities across the country are struggling to address. In this case, the learning tablets provided will give a hands-up to students and parents who are trying to keep up their studies as the country adapts to virtual education,” Peters said.
While accepting the tablets, Paula Smith, parent-teacher and the homeschool cluster supervisor, expressed gratitude to the Canadian High Commission and City Life for making available the tablets and additional educational resources through the project so that the children can remain involved in their schoolwork.
The commission said the project will also provide WiFi access as well as learning and teaching materials.
In his remarks, Carrington Morgan, executive director of City Life, said that, “the goal for the City Kids Homeschool programme is for it to not just be a COVID-19 activity but to become a way of life for all community residents.”
The project began activities in August and is expecting to be completed by December 2020.
