‘College students should have laptops, hopefully by January’

If everything goes according to plan, all the students at St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College will own Acer laptops by January, 2014.{{more}}

While speaking at the college on Tuesday, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade, Commerce and Information Technology Camillo Gonsalves announced to excited college students, that they will hopefully receive the laptops that were promised, in January.

“We have ordered, with the help of friends here and friends in the United Kingdom, 12,500 Acer laptops,” Gonsalves said.

The minister noted that the computers are state-of-the-art and come with built in webcams, a full version of Microsoft Office and a lifetime Microsoft license.

He said the laptops are being provided at a total cost of US$5 million, which will be paid by the government of Venezuela.

“That payment information is now with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Venezuela. They are going to be paying the money in the next week or two, so if everything works out, the shipping and assembling and everything, we should be here again in January handing out the laptops to each and every one of you,” he said.

Furthermore, Gonsalves pleaded with students to take care of the laptops.

“We’re giving them to you first, because we know that you’re the ones who had to wait when we were giving the laptops the first time, and also because we know that you are supposed to be the most mature students we have here. So, you will not only take good care of the laptops, but you will set a good example for all the people who are supposed to use the laptops. [It is] more than Facebook. We really want all of you to do some work with the laptops,” he said.

Addressing the gathering, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves encouraged those students who received laptops previously in primary school, to return them.

“Those of you who have brothers and sisters who have gotten the laptops in primary school and they have gone into the secondary school, I want to signal early that you’ll have to encourage them when they get the new laptops that they have to give back those which we have given to them because this is a fantastic upgrade,” the Prime Minister said.

The new Acer laptops are expected to be distributed to students at the secondary and tertiary levels in St Vincent and the Grenadines.(BK)