Leader of the Opposition Dr Keith Rowley says a report prepared by the UWI Faculty of Social Sciences on the role of the Government’s multi-million dollar laptop initiative failed to significantly assist the students in their overall performance.
Rowley said so during a meeting of the PNM in Maloney on Wednesday night.
The programme was introduced by the People’s Partnership Government, led by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, over the past five years to all students entering secondary schools,
He said the findings showed the project “has had no statistically significant impact on the students’ performance.”
Rowley said the report showed staff and student groups “indicated a relatively high dissatisfaction with the provision of Internet service and overall structure and implementation of the programme.”
The report recommended a strategic plan be formulated and implemented for ICT in schools in the wider curriculum.
Rowley said that was a clear indication that the Government had introduced the programme “with no proper planning.”
He said the report identified weaknesses in the existing system, which included inadequate teacher training in the use of ICT in classrooms, insufficient IT technical staff and no alignment to school curriculum in the T&T context.
However, Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh questioned yesterday why Rowley would proffer the report of one researcher to make his claim.
He said the matter should be determined after the work of several researchers worldwide were looked at.
“I think he should familiarise himself with the overall picture of where ICT has been carried and its successes. You cannot take one research paper findings and give a dominant statement on that,” Gopeesingh added.
The minister was responding to questions on the issue during yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair.