The Union of Jamaican Alumni Associations (UJAA) last Wednesday continued its programme of helping students across the island with the presentation of 120 Learnit tablets to primary and basic schools.

Representatives from Industry Cove Basic School, New Day Primary, Operation Restoration Christian School, Pike Primary and Infant School, Rosemount Primary and Infant School, Shortwood Practising and Primary School, and York Street Primary received the tablets throughout the day at New Day Primary School in St Andrew.

Learnit is a product of Caribbean e-Book Ltd targeted for first through sixth grade students.

Last Wednesday’s presentations follow an earlier shipment of 300 Learnit tablets this summer which were distributed to a number of schools, including UJAA’s own Industry Cove Basic School in Hanover.

The UJAA says that since launching its Laptop-N-tablet Programme in late 2020 and shipping more than 350 devices, valued at J$14 million, to schools in Jamaica in early 2021, it has made at least another six shipments of devices through the National Education Trust to its member schools across the island.

The association noted the importance of students being equipped with devices, given the increasing role of online learning triggered by the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“Alumni associations have been purchasing devices in bulk at discounted prices on a regular basis to ship to their schools,” the UJAA noted in a news release. “High school associations took the lead, closely followed by primary and basic schools.”

The UJAA said the acquisition and donation of devices is a “sensible strategy” that is “strongly supported by President Lesleyann Samuel since UJAA began to realise that embracing technology was the ‘lemonade of our pandemic lemons’ and predicted that establishing collaborative relationships was necessary”.

The association lamented that the delay of ships on the high seas resulted in the devices not being delivered quickly into the hands of the students. However, it noted that the shipments will boost the efforts of the Ministry of Education as well as school administrators, given the factors of low bandwidth, inconsistent student attendance especially in low-income households, and the resulting social effects and economic impact on students, teachers, administrators, and families.

The UJAA said although students with access to digital devices and Internet may still not be the majority, it is “confident that these ongoing donations will contribute to effective and inclusive forms of online learning plans that embrace our belief that ‘every child can have a device; every child must have a device’.”