Jamaica College (JC) has launched its science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) project which seeks to upgrade the school’s information communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and teaching methods.

The initiative, funded to the tune of US$500,000 (approximately J$73 million) by past student Dr Joseph Lloyd Tait, has seen the upgrade of several classrooms, as well as the retrofitting of three STEAM laboratories that have been equipped with ICT infrastructure and software at the Old Hope Road, St Andrew-based boys’ school.

The upgrades include the installation fibre optic cable to facilitate faster Internet, the installation of classroom Internet access points, smart TV’s and surround sound audio technology, network surveillance, multimedia projectors, laboratory 3D printer, as well as green screen panels.

Principal of JC Wayne Robinson said the upgrades will help to prepare students to function in a working environment driven by technology within the context of a Fourth Industrial Revolution.

“The vision really is to lead our boys into the modern world through how we deliver in all areas of the school. The aim of the STEAM infusion is to engage the boys in a practical and relevant way of learning that includes questioning, answering and solving problems and looking at practical solutions in how we teach.

“Also, it is about how we prepare the boys for the world that they are going to encounter when they go through the gates, and that world is a different world now. We are in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We’re in a world of 5G, we’re in a world of robotics and high technology. But that is not what is being taught and how we are teaching,” Robinson told the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday, at the launch of the STEAM initiative at one of three retrofitted labs named after past student and project benefactor, Dr Joseph Lloyd Tait.

“We wanted to change our methodology and that is what we are doing. It is going to take some time. It’s going to take maybe another two, or three years to get where we want to go. But we have certainly started the process with first form this year to change the curriculum and how we deliver that curriculum,” added Robinson.

Education Minister Fayval Williams said the STEAM infusion project was in alignment with the Government’s thrust to enable student’s greater use of, and access to, technology.

“This overall STEAM infusion project is forward-thinking and innovative. If Jamaica is to be the place to live, work, raise families and do business, then our workforce, through our education sector, has to be equally competitive on the global market,” said Williams.

“At the ministry we are committed to the task of ensuring that none of our students is left behind as we seek to eliminate the digital divide that exists in our society. This divide has been made even more evident with the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for our classrooms to be moved into the virtual space.

“This is one of the best examples of how crucial it is for partnerships to be encouraged in education, as now, because of the outreach of one man and his team, many young men will be able to be inspired in this manner, opening up to them a world of possibilities,” added Williams.

The initiative is being led by the school’s systems administrator Dawn McGregor-Bromfield who said the upgraded ICT infrastructure will help to better engage students across all subject areas.

“We have infused STEAM throughout the campus. Every block can feel STEAM. Every subject can use STEAM; every subject is supported with STEAM infrastructure, products and equipment that have been put in place.

“One of the teachers had a revolutionary idea of making the tables in one of the laboratories ones that the students can write on. We are moving away from telling the students not to write on the table. We have a solution where they can write their workings and solutions on the table,”said McGregor-Bromfield.

She added: “When we went to the manufacturers here in Jamaica with the idea, they said they had never heard of that anywhere. But they said they were going to do it and they did.”