Two 12-year-old cousins have to walk for over half an hour to a bakery daily, just to get a strong enough signal so they can participate in virtual learning.

They boys, from Windsor Forest in St Thomas, said they travel together, even if one doesn’t have classes, because they are aware that children are going missing frequently.

Joseph, a grade seven student at Seaforth High School, told the Jamaica Observer, “We are careful when we are walking to go up there. For one week I spend $1,050 for data. I have to do that every week. My mother has to give me the money every week. And when I buy the data, it only works well sometimes because sometimes the connection is still very poor. When it is not working, I can’t go to class.”

The boy added that if he doesn’t walk to the bakery, chances are he will not have any signal for class, despite purchasing data, and will be forced to miss out on learning.

“When we go up to the bakery we find some good spots and we get signal. It takes us ’bout 36 minutes to reach. Since school started back, I have not been able to get any Internet or Wi-Fi; I only have to use data. The data lasts for seven days because we use Google Classroom and Google Meet,” he said.

His cousin, Jevonny, a grade seven student at Donald Quarrie High School, has the same dilemma. His mother also spends over $1,000 a week on data for his classes.

“This Internet thirsty. It want some water. It difficult. Every time I go on it, it is not working. And when I was doing PEP [Primary Exit Profile] I was still have problem from that time last year. The two of us always walk together. Every time! If him a go, me affi go with him. All if me nuh have class. But mi nuh friad. Mi nuh fraid fi walk alone,” Jevonny shared.

“It is the same thing for me. I only use data alone, and I pay the same money like him and it is only for seven days too. I use Google Classroom and Zoom. We have to go way up at a bakery to get good signal. I didn’t have any class last week because I didn’t have a phone. My phone wasn’t working and my mother took it to fix it, so now I am using it again.”