Gore Family Foundation says it has invested $3 million to introduce robotics to 300 basic schoolchildren in Kingston.

They will be among the youngest students ever to be exposed to robotics in Jamaica.

“We are living in a world that is becoming increasingly technological with each passing day. Introducing the children in our basic schools to robotics at this age will play a critical role in equipping them with the skills and mindset necessary to adapt to and thrive in the 21st century,” a release from the foundation quotes Executive Director Christine Gore.

Some of the skills that this programme will help to foster in the children include problem-solving, creative and critical thinking, effective communication, teamwork, and learning science and mathematics concepts in a practical way.

The foundation explained that it has partnered with FIRST, a global robotics community currently in 110 countries, and Mona GeoInformatics Institute, to implement the programme in the 10 basic schools managed by the foundation.

The programme will also involve capacity development and training for many teachers so that they are able to deliver lessons and facilitate activities related to robotics in the schools that they work in for years to come.

“Robotics will build children’s critical thinking, enhance their creative skills, expand their vocabularies and improve their communication skills by them having to explain the things that they have created to their facilitators,” the release quotes Kaleela Bromfield, principal of Vouch Sylvia Foote, one of the 10 basic schools that will benefit from this programme.

The foundation’s management of the basic schools also exposes children to tennis, dancing, yoga, speech and drama, and music.