The first shipment of those long-awaited
computer tablets promised by the Ministry of Education have finally
arrived and will be distributed to 5,000 students most in need.
These tablets will help to bridge the digital divide for high school
students who are distance learning.
And while it may seem convenient that the tablets are being distributed
just before the election, the Education Minister insists it has nothing
to do with politics.
In fact, Patrick Faber keyed in on this deflection during the first
virtual handover ceremony held at the Sacred Heart Auditorium in Cayo.
Patrick Faber - Minister of Education
"The plan that was scheduled would have seen forty-three of our secondary
schools receive those digital devices. But the in a way, COVID helped us to
fast track what we're doing here today and so while in many respects we can
complain about covid, in this respect I want to thank Mr COVID for helping
us to make the point that this the direction that we ought to go and the
direction which we ought to have been going from a very long time ago.
These devices, my friends, come to us out of monies that were initially
scheduled from the Inter-American Development Bank for other activities
including the very same type of initiative that we're doing now although
all of this amount of money, the seven million dollars, would not have been
spent on procuring devices alone. In all of my thirteen - February will
make thirteen years of my leadership of the Ministry of Education, Minister
of Education noh call ina no scandal. That is because I have managed the
resources given under my watch in the best way that i know how to make sure
that those resources are utilized for all in the education system. And
we've taken out the politics of things so they can't ever accuse this
administration and this minister of corruption but because we are doing
what we're doing this morning and it's putting a damper into some political
plans of people, they're trying to call it a scam but I don't preside over
scams. The next batch will probably come right around the week of elections
so some people wah have heart failure because of that but it's not
politics."
First and fourth form students were given priority during this first
phase. There are 15,000 tablets in total to be distributed- and there
is a schedule to do so with virtual ceremonies on the daily in each
district - resuming into Belize City tomorrow.
Channel 7