More than 2,500 laptops, ordered last year to assist local students who were then under COVID restrictions, have arrived and are being prepared for distribution.
Education Minister Juliana O’Connor Connolly, who held the same portfolio under the Alden McLaughlin-led government when the laptops were procured, on Thursday announced the arrival of 2,640 laptops for distribution to primary school students across the Cayman Islands.
“Last July, I announced Cabinet’s approved funding for the One-to-One laptop programme that would provide all Government school students with laptops for use at home and school,” O’Connor-Connolly said in a statement Thursday.
The overall cost for the initiative is just over $1.35 million.
Last year, the ministry faced public criticism following an Office of Education Standards report that nearly one in 10 public-school students in the Cayman Islands lacked access to a digital device or computer, two months after government-mandated distance learning began in March 2020.
Back in October, 1,426 of the 1,650 laptops received through the public/private partnership-led ‘Education for Everyone Initiative’ were distributed among government schools.
“The majority (1,090) was entrusted to secondary school students who sat external examinations during the 2019/2020 academic year,” the ministry statement said.
The 2,640 new laptops will be distributed to schools in the coming weeks, and an additional 762 laptops have been ordered, according to the ministry.
The first batch of that shipment is scheduled to arrive by the end of this month.
The new devices will not be immediately handed over to students, Education Ministry assistant ICT manager Nicholas Mclean explained.
“Once our team receives the laptops, they begin to prepare them for distribution to students. This process includes imaging the machines, setting up the relevant software and installing any programmes that may be required on the device itself. We also enable the machines with tracking software to make sure that we can recover them if they go missing,” he said in the statement.
Platforms for remote access are also installed in the devices, together with additional packages such as content-filtering software to ensure that the laptop is functional and provides a level of e-safety by preventing and deterring any access to inappropriate content.
“Once these processes are completed, the laptops are ready to be issued to our students,” he said.
Mark Ray, head of business services in the Department of Educational Services, also pointed out that parents will have to ensure the devices are protected.
“Understanding that the Cayman Islands Government has made a substantial investment in these laptops, parents are asked to sign an acceptable use policy upon receipt of a laptop to encourage the responsible use and proper care of the device and encourage accountability among students,” Ray said.
Department of Education Services, the statement added, will continue to roll out its connectivity programme in conjunction with the schools.
“Through this programme, 145 LTE modems and 170 4G LTE connections, valid for 12 months, will be made available to families that have demonstrated a need for internet connectivity for their children’s continued education,” the statement said.
DES Acting Director Tammy Hopkins said the newly acquired technological tools are essential for creating a broad and balanced curriculum that prepares school leavers to compete in the local and global digital economies.
At John Gray High School, 750 of the secondary students have received laptops, which principal Jonathan Clark said has already had a “very positive response” from staff and students.
“Our eldest students have benefitted from having individual devices to complete school-based assessment (SBAs), and students are getting very creative with both classroom lessons and online prep sessions. Our science team have said that uptake to prep sessions has increased dramatically by offering them online with teams teaching to sometimes over 100 students,” Clark said in the statement.
John Gray head girl Keanna Kelly spoke of the advantages of having a laptop.
“Having a school laptop has made me feel significantly more prepared for exams as I feel like my productivity has increased. Research is made easier, so the completion of my work has essentially been made quicker. The laptops facilitate excellent communication with my teachers, which gives me access to them for querying and receiving feedback on assignments,” she said.
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