With Mountain View Primary and Infant School becoming the 12th school to receive a new smart lab from the Digicel Foundation, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Education Dr Kasan Troupe is urging teachers to maximise the use of technology in schools and give students more opportunities to engage with the devices.

“Teachers, do not be afraid of it. It is for use, for learning, for exploring,” she said at the handing-over ceremony of a smart lab on Wednesday at the Mountain View Primary and Infant School.

Dr Troupe expressed disappointment that, based on her observations, some schools have not been making full use of these devices mainly due to the fear of students damaging them. However, she is urging teachers to take a different approach by spending more time training students to use the devices instead of locking them away.

“I have had the opportunity to go into some schools and see the labs closed because teachers are fearful that the students will damage the equipment. We just need to train the students how to utilise the devices. But do not lock it away from the children. Please give them access, please excite them as they continue to champion their future with the support of the Digicel Foundation, the Ministry of Education, and the families who continue to partner in education,” she urged.

Dr Troupe used the opportunity to laud the Digicel Foundation for its support and commitment, especially with the challenges still affecting the education sector.

“Whenever you invest in education you invest in the future of our country and the Digicel Foundation has always been with us. When COVID came, we knew not what to do and we had our students with special needs who were at a disadvantage because they were out of the space, and the Digicel Foundation was the first entity to partner with the Ministry of Education to make sure that there was access to our students with special needs,” she said

Additionally, enrichment programme specialist at the Ministry of Education Shauner Murray echoed Dr Troupe’s sentiments, emphasising the need to prioritise sustainability to ensure long-term durability of the devices.

“There ought to be a way to help stakeholders to understand the value of what they have so that after the initial planting of these seeds, these ventures can be sustained. Sustainability has to be a key aspect of our understanding. Sustainability is critical so that this immeasurable value will not just serve those who are current, but will serve those who are to come, especially the younger children entering grade one,” said Murray.

She urged parents, teachers and other representatives in the Ministry of Education to protect these investments and maximise their potential.

In the meantime, board chairman at the Mountain View Primary and Infant School Howard Chamberlain Jr expressed gratitude for the Digicel Foundation’s contribution, noting that the smart lab will have a positive impact on student performance at the school, especially in the Primary Exit Profile (PEP).

He said the lab will play a major role in bridging the digital divide among students at the school.

“We are placed in an area, in a community where the majority of the students that come to us are at-risk [and] majority of the students that come to us are from low-income families, and as such our role and our job is very important to ensure that we guide them on a path that they can further enrich their lives and develop their communities,” he said.

The lab, he added, is an important step for students and teachers to embrace the importance of involving more technology in schools.

“This smart lab comes at an important time where we are pivoting or shifting our focus to see how best we can push the use of technology in education here at Mountain View; we hear about AI coming up, kids using phones, and stuff like that, and we are having this tug-of-war with them, to push them to the sort of book and pencil that we grew up on, but the truth of the matter is that this generation has changed. They are far ahead of us and some of these technology and these intellectual programmes, we have to embrace them and find ways to include them in education,” he said.

The smart lab is outfitted with laptops, tablets and a smart board that will be used to facilitate teaching and learning at the school.

The Digicel Foundation smart labs project is an initiative aimed at equipping 21 schools across Jamaica with technology to enhance learning and bridging the digital divide in schools.