KINGSTON, Jamaica — Member of Parliament for Kingston East and Port Royal, Phillip Paulwell, says he is disappointed with the progress of the Tablets in Schools Programme, which was intended to improve learning conditions for students.

Paulwell, who was speaking at his back-to-school ceremony at his constituency office on Windward Road on Wednesday, where laptops were issued to Primary Exit Profile (PEP) students, expressed concern about the implementation of the programme and said more needs to be done to ensure schools receive the necessary equipment in a timely manner.

“I’m disappointed because 21 years ago, I established the Universal Service Fund and that fund was to enable Jamaicans to have full access to the internet [at] low cost. It was to enable every single student in primary schools and we started this with a tablets-in-school pilot project in 2015. But we wanted to make sure that every single primary school student would have a tablet computer,” Paulwell said.

He said the programme was also aimed at ensuring high school students have a laptop computer.

“So when we developed this project in 2005. That was the aim to ensure that Jamaican students could be on par with any student elsewhere— Japan, the US and so on. So I’m disappointed that we have not yet fulfilled those objectives that were set,” he added.