| September saw the introduction of the “One Laptop per Teacher” programme (OLPT), which replaced the “One Laptop per Family” programme (OLPF). Since the commencement of the programme, many questions have risen regardingMinister of Education, Dr. Rupert Roopnarainethe reason behind the initiative.Minister of Education, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, in a recent interview, stated that the rationale behind the project was to ensure that teachers are brought into the 21’st century along with their students.“What I think the One Laptop per Teacher does, is give teachers the capacity to keep up with the children in the area of technology,” said Roopnaraine.The Minister stated, “The computers will enhance the teacher’s ability to teach the children.” It remained unclear however, how the laptops would be used in a direct effort to accommodate student learning.The Ministry was said to have initially intended the laptops for students, but after some careful consideration it was realized that such a project was a bit over ambitious.“When we looked at it in terms of costs, we did not feel that it was something we could do at this time,” Dr. Roopnaraine said.The Minister stated that the Ministry will soon revisit the idea of getting laptops into the hands of each student.“We haven’t ruled out anything,” he stated. “We are just taking it a step at a time to see how to proceed with it.”He said that the Ministry at the moment is interested in moving to a point where tablets are available in schools countrywide for both students and teachers. The Ministry also hopes that such an initiative will lessen the technological gap between teachers and students.The Minister, commenting on the One Laptop per Family programme, said that it “did not seem to make a lot of sense.”He related that the conversion of the OLPF into the OLPT programme was borne out of an interest to use resources wisely. As such, teachers were selected to be recipients of the laptops.He also stated that under the previous programme, there was no assurance that the children would benefit from the laptops.“It did not seem to us that that (OLPF) would necessarily translate into better performance in the classroom,” Roopnarine said.It was President David Granger who in 2011 recognized the need for teachers to be au fait with the latest technology and committed himself to the distribution of laptops for teachers throughout the country. President Granger delivered on his promise last September.The programme to provide laptops to the teachers was said to have got underway already with some teachers having already received theirs.“Children armed with tablets and teachers armed with the latest technology, we will in fact, be taking the necessary big steps we need to take to enter the twenty-first century,” said Dr. Roopnaraine. |
