Dear Editor,

Since the closure of schools in early March, bringing in its wake a switch from face-to-face to online learning, I have watched as the litany of woes besetting this method grows exponentially.

The challenges run the gamut and include the short attention span of some students, parents not being able to assist their children either due to not understanding the lessons themselves or just not being there due to the need to be at work, to the far more vexing issues of students not having either laptops, tablets, as well as poor or no Internet connectivity.

While past students, the private sector, or good Samaritans can assist with the required tools, the grave issue of no Internet connectivity lies squarely at the feet of Government.

It is patently clear that both Internet providers Flow and Digicel cannot provide the services needed.

I have heard a figure of 500,000 students who are feared will be left behind. Indeed, one source says half of the parish of Hanover has no Internet service.

In all of this, telecommunications provider Caricel has been taken out of the market based, it is said, on the fact that there are “adverse traces” attached to one of that company’s directors. If that is the issue, why has the director with adverse traces not been removed and the company allowed to provide cost-effective quality service while employing scores of Jamaicans?

If ever the telecommunications landscape needed competent players it is now. The burdened system is crying out; the future generation deserves no less.

Shanigue Henriques

Barbican, St Andrew

c/o damac@yahoo.com