Charity to gift 18,000 tablets to students - Company that lost Tablets in Schools contract giving away gadgets

In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak which has resulted in the closure of schools, the GeoTechVision firm has launched an initiative dubbed 'EduTechAid', which is aimed at providing children across the island with tablets to access their studies online.

Stephen Wedderburn, director of EduTechAid, told THE STAR that more than 20 tablets have been distributed to students in four parishes thus far.

"Last week was our first week of real activities, so we have given out about 20 to 25, but we expect to ramp up as time progresses ... . We have donated to children in St Thomas, Manchester, Kingston and Hanover so far," he said.

The Wedderburn-led GeoTechVision is now involved in a legal stand-off with the state-run company e-Learning Jamaica after its contract to provide tablets under the Tablets in Schools project was terminated. Through EduTechAid, the company now aims to distribute 18,000 tablets which were warehoused after a termination of contracts to students in need.

"The tablets we have are some that were meant for the Tablets in Schools programme, so since the contract with e-Learning ended, we are trying to get them out through charitable means rather than have them sitting there," Wedderburn said.

"We decided to organise EduTechAid as a company because we realise persons were not able to access the remote-teaching services, and so we reached out to schools and partnered with them to give out the tablets," said Wedderburn

"They are some households with three of four students who have to rely on their mothers' phones, and that can be very hectic."

The target recipients of the tablets are primary and secondary students who are expected to sit examinations sometime this year.

"It is a mixture of secondary and primary students, so we have been distributing to children at the PEP stage in primary, and CSEC for the secondary," Wedderburn said.

Shania Knight, 16, a student at the Manchester High School who is currently preparing for her CSEC, is a recipient of one of EduTechAid's tablets.

"Since I got the tablet, I downloaded Google Classroom and I'm now catching up on my schoolwork, which was hard before because I had to use my father's phone with my brother and sister," she said. "It has helped me a lot, and I feel great that I got it."

Likewise, her stepfather Dwayne Allen expressed how grateful he is for the assistance.

"Me very appreciative and thankful for the help, because them children love it and it is helping them out a lot," Allen told THE STAR.