LIME Internet Summer School ends

LIME, this country’s leading telecommunication provider, and the students of year six of the Internet Summer School celebrated the closing ceremony last Tuesday at the Methodist Church Hall in Kingstown. Internet Summer School is the brainchild of Sandra Matthews, Vice President, Human Resources, and the Technology departments, and endorsed by the Ministry of Education.{{more}} The program has four categories of students, namely Beginners, Intermediate, Advanced, the top brass of the Police Force and Retirees. The main objective of the program is to expose participants to the internet with a particular focus on its proper use.

Attending the ceremony were Hon. Jerrol Thompson, Minister of Telecommunications, Science, Technology and the Industry, Mrs. Elizabeth Walker, Senior Education Officer for Primary Schools, Angus Steele, Country Manager LIME, parents, students and tutors of the program.

Dr. Thompson, delivering the feature address, praised LIME for staying with the program after six years and commended the students and tutors for the interest shown in ICT, Information Communication Technology. Dr. Thompson commented “the household penetration of computers in St Vincent and the Grenadines is low and it is the duty of all stakeholders to make computers more accessible to students, especially those who cannot afford to pay the high cost. Using the facility called the Universal Service Fund (USF), the government is working on a program with LIME to make the Lenovo netbooks more affordable and accessible to our students. Our students must start now to embrace ICT because there are lots of opportunities in ICT.”

Country Manager Angus Steele in his address said: “over the last 3 years we’ve seen a consistent increase in the number of attendees moving from 297 in 2007 to 338 in 2008 to 371 in 2009 and additionally, an increase in the number of Retirees. Our own ex-employees also attended this program in ensuring that they keep in touch with technology and enhancing their skills to remain marketable and relevant in this new world.”

He continued: “the current live streaming of the debate on the Second Reading of The Constitution Bill at Parliament House carried live on the internet courtesy LIME represents a first for St. Vincent and The Grenadines and once again demonstrates the resolve of our network and the confidence of the Government and Opposition in our network to provide such a facility. As the program continues to expand, it is our intent to work much closer with the Ministry of Education next year to allow us to have an even greater participation, however, utilizing the various Learning Resource Centers given our limited space at our Arnos Vale compound.”

Several awards were given to the following students for outstanding work.

Beginners: Anfernee Joseph and Zinzi Williams; Intermediate: Gyasi Barnum; Advanced: Rolland Mapp; Retiree: Sylvia Stoddard.

Retiree Sylvia Stoddard delivered the vote of thanks and singled out the tutors Ellica Matthews, Darrel Stephenson, Neri James and Francis Douglas for excellent work done. Special mention was made of Darrel Stephenson for being the most interactive tutor, and Karon Drakes, Human Resource Executive, for her organizational skills. Nine year old Rihanna Jack performed a special dance, while Mark Hillocks entertained the audience with sweet pan music.