Tablets galore for primary school kids

Forty students selected from three primary schools in the St Catherine South Central wore broad smiles as they received tablets from Prime Minister Andrew Holness under the Positive Jamaica Initiative on Friday.

The PM told the teachers and students who gathered at the Harmony Gospel Chapel that it was their duty to support education at the primary level.

“Although there are programmes like PATH, there are still other groups that require assistance, so we are here to assist you with these tablets,” Holness said, referring to welfare fund, the Programme for Advancement Through Health and Education.

Holness implored the recipients to take care of the gifts.

Among the beneficiaries was nine-year-old Martina Robinson of Homestead Primary School, who beamed as she collected her device.

“I can now do my online work without disturbing my mother’s phone. I feel very good and I am going to take care of it,” Robinson said with her teacher present.

The student, who lives in McCooks Pen, St Catherine, revealed that she had sometimes missed out on classes for want of a computer.

“This tablet will help me with my diagnostic test as I now can use it to help prepare for the schoolwork,” Martina added.

Meanwhile, principal of Homestead Primary, Sophia Deer, praised the prime minister’s gesture, saying that the donation would help close the gap in learning loss.

St Catherine South Central Member of Parliament Dr Andrew Wheatley, a long-time Holness loyalist, said the students were selected on a needs basis by the principal of each school.

Deer is the mother of Wheatley’s nephew.

Rasbert Turner