Secondary, tertiary students to get laptops before school year ends

Before the end of the current school year, secondary and tertiary school students are expected to receive their promised laptops.{{more}}

While speaking at the launch of the Support for Education and Training (SET) programme last Thursday, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves revealed a model of the Acer laptops that were promised to students, and indicated that they were expected to be arrive in St Vincent and the Grenadines in early May.

In the recent update, Gonsalves noted that although he hoped the computers would have arrived in April, students can expect to receive their laptops before the end of the next school term.

“This is a top of the line Acer laptop. A couple advanced samples have come. This is …a top quality machine and in this, there is going to be free Microsoft software, indefinitely,” he said.

“Before the term ends, at the end of June, I want to be able to give those out to forms 1, 2, 3 and 4 and to give them out to the first year in the Community College system.”

Due to the educational thrust that is attached to the laptops, the Prime Minister indicated that laptops would be distributed to the fifth form students when they enter the Community College.

“I don’t want to give somebody who not going on to the Community College, who just leaving the fifth form and going to work somewhere or something like that.”

Gonsalves took the opportunity to urge parents and students to take care of their Magellan computers, the first set of laptops to be shared out under the “One Laptop per Child” initiative.

“I want to say to those students, form one and form two and form three, please don’t mash up your Magellan because when I give you this, I have to take back that one, because there are some in the primary school who need it. I’m giving you a superior machine, so please remember that,” he said.

Approximately 12,500 laptops are expected to come to St Vincent and the Grenadines, where they will be tested before distribution takes place.

Gonsalves indicated that the laptops are being provided at a total cost of US$5 million, which is being absorbed by the government of Venezuela.